| 释义 |
monad|ˈmɒnæd|
Also 7 monade.
[a. L. monad-, monas unit, ad. Gr. µονάς unit, f. µόνος alone. Cf. F. monade, Sp., Pg. monada, It. monade.]
1. a. The number one, unity; an arithmetical unit. Now only Hist. with reference to the Pythagorean or other Greek philosophies, in which numbers were regarded as real entities, and as the primordial principles of existence.
1615G. Sandys Trav. 144 [tr. Sibyl. Orac. i. i.] Eight monads, decads eight, eight hecatons Declare his name [sc. ΙΗσουσ = 888]. 1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cclv, Numbers carrie Their Preiudice, but Monads never varie. 1660Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1687) 523/2 They make a difference betwixt the Monad and One, conceiving the Monad to be that which exists in Intellectuals; One in numbers. Ibid. 525/1 The Monad is a quantity, which in the decrease of multitude, receiveth mansion and station; for below Quantity, Monad [read below Monad, Quantity] cannot retreat. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 372 The Cause of that Sympathy, Harmony, and Agreement, which is in things,..was by Pythagoras called Vnity or a Monade. 1706J. Matthews Forgiveness To Rdr., They fram'd up a whole decad of frivolous depositions, without one entire monad of truth. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 485 Instead of saying that oddness is the cause of odd numbers, you will say that the monad is the cause of them.
b. applied to the Deity.
1642H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. iii. xii, One steddy Good, centre of essencies, Unmoved Monad, that Apollo hight. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 225 That which was called by them [sc. the Platonists and Pythagoreans] the τὸ ἓν or µονὰς, Unity itself or a Monad—that is, one most simple Deity. 1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. III. 233 He [Robert Fludd] reveals the nature of the Divine Being, as ‘a pure monad, including in itself all numbers’. 1850Daubeny Atom. Th. xiv. (ed. 2) 451 The monad is used to signify the Deity, as being the first great Cause, one and the same, throughout all space, and in all time. 1870J. H. Newman Gram. Assent i. iv. 49 But of the Supreme Being it is safer to use the word ‘monad’ than unit.
2. An ultimate unit of being; an absolutely simple entity. Also attrib.
Chiefly used with reference to the philosophy of Leibniz (1646–1716), according to which the universe of existence consists of entities without parts, extension, or figure, and possessing, in infinitely various degrees, the power of perception. Those among these ‘monads’ which have the perceptive power in the higher degrees are souls; the rest are formed in the view of the percipient mind into aggregates, which constitute bodies. The term was adopted by Leibniz from Giordano Bruno (d. 1600), with whom the ‘monad’ has the twofold aspect of a material atom and an ultimate element of psychical existence.
1748Hartley Observ. Man ii. i. 27 No Sensation can be a Monad, inasmuch as the most simple are infinitely divisible in respect of Time. 1785Reid Intell. Powers iii. iv. 345 A person is something indivisible, and is what Leibnitz calls a monad. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. ii. 38 The conscious indivisible monad which I feel myself to be. 1874Morris tr. Ueberweg's Hist. Philos. §111 II. 27 Bruno opposes the doctrine of a dualism of matter and form... The elementary parts of all that exists are the minima or monads,..they are at once psychical and material. The soul is a monad... God is the monad of monads. 1879Huxley Hume iii. 81 The possibility that the mind is a Leibnitzian monad. a1914C. S. Peirce Coll. Papers (1931) I. 146, I therefore divide all objects into monads, dyads, and triads; and the first step in the present inquiry is to ascertain what are the conceptions of the pure monad, free from all dyadic and triadic admixtures. Ibid. ii. 149 Now in order to convert that psychological or logical conception into a metaphysical one, we must think of a metaphysical monad as a pure nature, or quality, in itself without parts or features, and without embodiment. 1929R. Bridges Test. Beauty i. 19 It was no flaw In Leibnitz to endow his monad-atoms with Mind. 1937[see actio in distans]. 1965New Statesman 18 June 942/2, I had been very impressed, wandering around housing estates, at the growth of what..seemed ‘monad’ politics... People didn't connect, except through mass media, but found images difficult to accept as reality.
transf.1862Q. Rev. Apr. 402 The wealth, the might..of the British empire are due not to the mere aggregation and activity of monads or units of mankind [etc.].
3. Biol. A hypothetical simple organism, assumed in evolutionary speculations as the first term in the genealogy of living beings, or regarded as associated with a multitude of similar organisms to form an animal or vegetable body.
1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. Introd. 24 Thus [according to Lamarck], by consequence, in the lapse of ages a monad becomes a man!!! 1847Tulk tr. Oken's Physiophilos. 570 Decomposition is a separation into Monads, a retrogression into the primary mass of the animal kingdom. 1851H. Spencer Soc. Stat. xxx. 451 We are warranted in considering the body as a commonwealth of monads, each of which has independent powers of life, growth, and reproduction. 1880Bastian Brain 10 The encysted mass of living matter may after a time divide into a swarm of smaller though most active monads.
4. Zool. A protozoon of the genus Monas, or, more widely, of the older Monadidea or the class Flagellata.
1836–9R. Owen Entozoa in Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 133/2 Some species of the Trematode Entozoa are infested by parasitic Polygastrica which belong to the Monads. 1846Mantell Th. Animalcules 38 The monads we have just examined are single, free animalcules. 1847–9R. Jones Polygastria in Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 7/1 The genus Uvella..somewhat resembles a transparent mulberry rolling itself about at will, whence the name ‘grape monad’, which these animalcules bear.
5. Chem. An element or radical which has the combining power of one atom of hydrogen.
1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. (1874) 172 The elements of the first group combine atom for atom with hydrogen, they are monovalent elements or monads. Ibid. 264 Thallium is a monad in the thallious compounds.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. Biol., as monad-deme (see deme2 2), monad-form; monad-like adj.b. Chem., as monad atom, monad element, monad radical.
a.1842Pritchard Hist. Infusoria 89 Separate Monad-like bodies. 1846Dana Zooph. i. (1848) 7 note, Monad-like in their motions. 1874Monthly Jrnl. Microsc. Soc. XII. 261 The minute monad-forms found in macerations of fish.
b.1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. (1874) 172 Each atom..requires two monad atoms for saturation. Ibid. 175 The monad elements unite amongst themselves to form only few and simple compounds. 1873C. H. Ralfe Phys. Chem. Introd. 26 From all dibasic acids a monad as well as a diad radical may be derived.
7. quasi-adj. = monadic.
a. Of or pertaining to the monadic constitution of matter;
b. Chem. That has the atomic constitution of a monad.
1846Dana Zooph. vii. (1848) 107 These remarks are intended to support no monad or Lamarckian theory. 1866Odling Anim. Chem. 16 Monad, dyad, and triad combinations. 1878Lockyer Spect. Anal. (ed. 2) 124 Many monad metals give us their line spectra at a low degree of heat. |