An idea · Early Modern · first attested 1714
The Monad
An indivisible, perspectival, soul-like atom of reality.
Leibniz's basic unit. Monads are not material atoms; they are simple substances, each containing within itself the entire universe from its own point of view, like an infinite hall of mirrors. They have no windows — they don't causally interact — but their internal unfolding is pre-harmonized by God so that to us they appear to coordinate. A strange, beautiful theory.