Material monism

From Free net encyclopedia

Material monism is a presocratic belief which provides an explanation of the physical world by saying that all that is, is composed of a single element. Among the material monists were Thales who believed that everything was composed of water, Anaximander believed it was apeiron, and Anaximenes believed it was air.

Although their ideas seem far fetched they still deserve credit. They were the first to give an explanation of the physical world without referencing the supernatural, which opened the way for all modern science which has the same goal of explaning the world without using the supernatural.