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Monadologism, a philosophical idea depicting a non-communicative, self-actuating system of
windowless, individualistic and deterministic beings, has implications for understanding the
challenge of social order. Philosophical discourses on social order have focused mainly on the
Cartesian mind-body interactionism and its implications for human society, to the neglect of
insights from other perspectives like Leibniz‘s monads, which could improve the understanding of
the challenge of social order. The study was, therefore, designed to examine Leibniz‘s idea of
monadology, with a view to establishing the relationship between the metaphysical and the
physical in the structure of the human society.
Thomas Aquinas‘ Principle of Participation, which advocates communication and inter subjectivity, was adopted. Interpretive design was used. Texts examined in Metaphysics included
Leibniz‘s Monadology and Discourse on Metaphysics (DM), Carr‘s The Reform of the Leibnizian
Monadology (TRLM), and Russell‘s Some Problems in the Philosophy of Leibniz (SPPL). In
Social Philosophy, Bhikhu‘s Unity and Diversity in Multicultural Societies (UDMS), Offor‘s The
Modern Leviathan and the Challenge of World Order (TMLCWO), Oyeshile‘s Reconciling the
Self with the Order (RSO), and Held‘s Democracy and the Global Order (DGO) were
interrogated. These texts deal with critical issues relating to social order. The philosophical tools
of conceptual elucidation, critical analysis and reconstruction were used.
Monadology, DM, and TRLM revealed that monadologism, which is a closed system that puts
forward a platonic argument for the forms against the substantiality of bodies, excludes the notion
of interactionism exhibited by gregarious beings, which inheres in Cartesianism. Beings, being
monads, are metaphysically constituted, non-interactive and owe their harmony to a force external
to them (Monadology, TRLM). This attempt to exclude monads from interactionism and to
explain their harmony in relation to an external force further complicates the knowledge of
humans as social beings possessing freewill (Monadology, SPPL, TRLM). The RSO and UDMS
show the need for interaction, since there cannot be social order without the ‗Other‘. Social order
requires a set of linked social structures and values which maintain patterns of relation,
communication and participation between the physical self and the metaphysical other.
Communication and participation encourage inclusiveness and inter-subjectivity in the system,
where all the parts work in harmony towards achieving common objectives (DGO, TMLCWO).
Critical intervention showed that establishing a proper relationship between the metaphysical and
the physical, though a necessary condition for interaction and participation, is not sufficient for
solidarity which is a sine qua non for social order.
Monadologism and Cartesianism, by appealing to principles like interactionism, participation and
communication, could not adequately account for social order. A better account of a society
derives from a framework of shared relations between the self and its others |
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