I don't think there's a problem here. We get two functions with a monad m: bind :: m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b return :: a -> m a These allow us to define then

I don't think there's a problem here. We get two functions with a monad m: bind :: m a -> (a -> m b) -> m b return :: a -> m a These allow us to define then :: m a -> (a -> b) -> m b then x f = bind x (return . f) i.e. it's trivial to lift a regular function into the monad.