Materialism

Materialism is a form of philosophical monism that holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Materialism is closely related to physicalism; the view that all that exists is ultimately physical.

History

The philosophy of materialism has its roots in antiquity. The pre-Socratic philosophers, such as Thales and Anaxagoras, proposed that everything in the universe was composed of material substances. This idea was further developed by the atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, who argued that the universe was composed of indivisible atoms moving in a void.

In the modern era, materialism was revived by the French philosopher Pierre Gassendi, who argued against the dualism of René Descartes. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed a form of materialism known as dialectical materialism, which became the philosophical basis of Marxism.

Varieties

There are several varieties of materialism, including:

• Physicalism: The view that everything that exists is no more extensive than its physical properties.
• Eliminative Materialism: The view that some mental phenomena do not exist and that talk of those mental phenomena reflects a totally misguided theory.
• Reductive Materialism: The view that mental phenomena can be reduced to physical phenomena.

Criticism

Materialism has been criticized on several grounds. Some critics argue that it cannot account for consciousness, free will, and other mental phenomena. Others argue that it leads to a reductionist view of the human person, reducing persons to mere collections of atoms.

See also

• Dualism
• Idealism
• Physicalism
• Reductive materialism
• Eliminative materialism
• Dialectical materialism

References

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