Breadth and Depth: Monism and Scientific Meta-Reflection The monistic movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are most often studied as aiming at a comprehensive worldview, a Weltanschauung. Typically, monists tried to generate such a worldview by transforming their scientific expertise in a particular field into an all-encompassing explanation and interpretation of the world. Monism thus needed to strike a balance between the specialist depth in studying one area of science and the breadth that is the hallmark of a worldview. Immediately, this combination of breadth and depth raises important questions. As the career paths of the monists show, many different specializations could form the basis of a monist worldview: evolutionary biology and morphology in the case of Ernst Haeckel, cellular neurology and the study of social insects in the work of Auguste Forel, and physical chemistry in Wilhelm Ostwald's monistic theorizing. There were many brands of monism. In order therefore to avoid a conflict between this plurality of scientific activities on the one hand and the clear claims at unification that lie in the very idea of monism on the other, the step from particular subject areas to complete generality had to be justified. This justification itself had to be effected by a science-based mode of reflection; monism required a strong form of scientific self- and meta-reflection. What was necessary were arguments to the effect that the specialist basis did not compromise the generality that monism aimed at.
...MoreBook Weir, Todd H. (2012) Monism: Science, Philosophy, Religion, and the History of a Worldview.
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