What are Monads?

1. Monads are simple substances which make up compounds. ‘Simple’ means without parts.

2. Compounds are heaps or aggregates of simples.

3. Space, shape, and divisibility have parts. These monads are the genuine atoms of Nature, the elements of things.

4. Monads cannot be broken up.

A simple substance cannot naturally cease to exist.

5. A simple substance cannot naturally come into being, since it could not be put together out of parts.

6. So, monads can only come in or out of being all at once. In other words, they can come into being only by creation, and go out of being only by annihilation.

By contrast, compounds come in our out of being through their parts.

7. A monad cannot be internally altered or changed by some other created being.

There is nothing which can be moved from one position to another.

It is impossible to conceive of any internal motion, which could be set up, redirected, increased, or diminished inside it.

By contrast, this is possible in compounds, since they have parts which can change position.

Monads have no windows to let anything in or out by.

Accidents cannot detach themselves from substances, or travel around independently of them, as the ‘sensible species’ of the scholastics used to do.

Consequently, neither substances nor accidents can get into a monad from outside.

8. Monads have some qualities otherwise they would not be beings at all.

If simple substances didn’t have different qualities, there would be no way in which we could become conscious of any change in things.

This is because whatever there is in compounds can only come from their simple ingredients.

If monads had no qualities, it would be impossible to distinguish one from another, since they are not quantitatively different either.

The lack of empty space means that whenever there was any motion, each part of space only received a motion which was equivalent to the motion it had before.

It follows that the one state of things would be indiscernible from the other.

9. Every monad is necessarily different from every other monad.

In Nature, there are never 2 beings which are perfectly similar to each other, and where it is impossible to find any internal difference — that is, a difference grounded in an intrinsic denomination.

10. Every created being is subject to change.

Consequently, this is also true of every created monad. This change is continuous in each of them.

11. Natural changes to which monads are subject come from an internal principle, since no external cause could influence the inside of a monad.

12. But in addition to the principle of change, there must also be a precise specification of that which changes.

This precise specification:

• individualises simple substances, and
• makes them different from each other

13. This precise specification must include a multiplicity within a unity (or something simple).

For since every natural change happens gradually, something changes and something remains.

Consequently, a simple substance must contain a multiplicity of affections and relations, even though it does not contain any parts.

14. Perception is the transitory state which includes and represents a multiplicity within a unity (or simple substance).

However, this is different from apperception or consciousness.

The Cartesians went seriously wrong here. They did not recognise the existence of unconscious perceptions.

This led them to believe:

• that only rational beings were monads, and
• that there were no animal souls* or other entelechies.

It also confused them into a long state of unconsciousness with death in the strict sense (like ordinary folk).

This also led them into the scholastic prejudice that souls are entirely separate from bodies.

It even reinforced the opinion of some people with twisted minds that souls are mortal.