The Duality of Time Theory

Monads can also be compared to the corpuscles of the Mechanical Philosophy, they are the ultimate elements of the universe. They are substantial forms of being, they are eternal, indecomposable, individual, subject to their own laws, un-interacting, and each reflecting the entire universe in a pre-established harmony. Monads are also centers of force, while space, matter, and motion are merely phenomenal. Therefore, for Leibniz space and time are systems of relations that exist between objects, unlike Newton’s space and time that are entities in their own right.

The word monad appears in the doctrines of Pythagoras, as the unity from which all number and multiplicity are derived. Plato used in the plural as a synonym for the Ideas, while Aristotle use it as the principle of number, itself being devoid of quantity, indivisible and unchangeable. For many Greek philosophers, including Pythagoras, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus, Monad is the first being, the totality of all beings, the source or the One, as God. It also occurs as a synonym for atom, as incorporeal or spiritual entity.

For Leibniz, monads are simple unextended substances, that cannot begin or end except by creation or annihilation. He also considers them independent, although they are capable of internal activity, but cannot be influenced in a physical manner by anything outside themselves. Moreover, each monad is unique; that is, there are no two monads alike. He described in his Monadologie that monads must have qualities, otherwise they would not even be entities.

Unfortunately, Descartes and Leibniz theories of corpuscles and monads had not received adequate attention, unlike Newton’s Mechanics which quickly found many industrial and practical applications, and was eventually developed by Einstein into the Theory of Relativity. Although, in essence, had it been given similar consideration, Quantum Mechanics would have been a natural successor of Monadology. It is only because of this historical break that Quantum Mechanics came out late and with new terminology, and physicists had to wait many decades after the beginning of Quantum Mechanics until the Standard Model of Quantum Field Theory established the fact that elementary particles are the quanta of field excitations, which are nothing but the monads.

Islamic scholars were particularly fascinated with the theory of atoms or monads. Although the Mutazilites and Asharites disagreed about certain secondary issues, they generally posited that all matter is composed of identical and indivisible particles; that acquire quantitative or qualitative properties only when at least two of them unite to form physical bodies.