📰 Boundaries, Objects, and Connections | Meaningness

Monism is the idea that “All is One”; dualism, that the world consists of clearly separate objects.

The world is not objectively divisible into separate objects. Boundaries are, roughly, perceptual illusions, created by our brains. Moreover, which boundaries we see depends on what we are doing—on our purposes.

However, boundaries are not just arbitrary human creations. The world is immensely diverse. Some bits of it stick together much more than other bits. Some bits connect with each other in many ways besides just stickiness. The world is, in other words, patterned as well as nebulous.

However, the idea that the world is not made up of clearly separable objects, but is also not just one big blur, may be unfamiliar.