Monism

Monism is the doctrine that both mind and matter can be reduced to one substance or ultimate reality.

History
Monism was coined by German philosopher Christian Wolff during the peak of the Enlightenment. Wolff wanted to create an inclusive disjunction in order to eliminate the dichotomy of mind and body. Therefore, Wolff asserted that either everything is mental or that everything is material. At present, philosophers maintain that all of reality is ultimately one and indivisible.

Types of Monism
There are two types of monism: "substantival" and "attributive."

Substantival monism holds that the entirety of reality is reducible to only one substance. A diversity within reality means indicates a plurality of aspects or modes of this single substance. Substantival Monism is seen in eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism and utilized by western philosophers like Baruch Spinoza.

Attributive monism advances a theory that there is only one category of being. Within this single category, there are multiple distinct and unique elements, things, or substances. Attributive monism can be further divided into three types:


 * Idealism
 * Materialism/physicalism
 * Neutral monism