Materialism
Materialism is a philosophical doctrine that posits that only matter and its modifications exist, rejecting the notion of non-material entities such as ideas or consciousness. Originating in the sixth century BCE, materialism is closely linked to the development of science and philosophy, with early proponents such as Thales of Miletus. The philosophy asserts that human knowledge of the world comes through sensory experience and perception, positioning itself in opposition to idealism, which emphasizes the primacy of ideas and the mind. In contemporary discourse, the term "materialism" is frequently associated with an excessive focus on material wealth and goods.
Materialism is divided into several branches, including theoretical materialism, which maintains that all phenomena are functions of matter, and psychological materialism, which views mental processes as rooted in physical processes. Karl Marx's historical materialism extends the concept by suggesting that material conditions fundamentally shape societal structures and economic relations. This perspective illustrates how materialist thought intersects with various fields, including science and social theory, while often aligning with determinism, as events are explained through material causes. Overall, materialism offers a framework for understanding reality that prioritizes the material world over non-material explanations.
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Materialism
The philosophy of materialism is grounded in the belief that nothing exists except matter and its modifications. While different forms of materialism have emerged since in the origin of the idea in the sixth century BCE, the central tenet of materialism is that human intellect comes to know and understand the world of matter through experience and perception. In this way, materialism is in opposition to the philosophy of idealism. In the modern era, however, the term materialism is most often used to denote an excessive desire for material goods and wealth.
Overview
The birth of materialism is identified by historians to have occurred in the sixth century BCE. Materialism emerged at the same time that the Greeks developed their concepts of science, mathematics, and philosophy, and it is most often attributed to Thales of Miletus. As a philosophy, materialism is closely associated with the natural sciences; it considers that reality and the universe exist outside of human thought and are independent of the human mind, i.e., that they are material. Modern science involves the study of the material world around us, learning about material events, and theorizing about their material causes. Scientists are materialists in that they only study the material world. Philosophical materialism is opposed to idealism, which holds that ideas, thought, and mind are a central part of reality and that the world of matter is a reflection of mind, thought, and ideas.
Materialist philosophers such as Renė Descartes, Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Jerry Fodor, and Daniel Clement agree instead that human intellect can come to know and understand the world of matter through experience, sense, and perception and that humans can interact with and shape the material world, but the world of material existence remains and is primary. In this way, materialism is a metaphysical doctrine. Similarly, superstition, religion, and consciousness are all denied by materialism because, for example, the sensation of warmth or the taste of coffee have no quantifiable mass or energy and no actual location in physical space. Likewise, atheists are usually materialists because they reject the idea that there exists anything independent of the workings of matter and energy.
For materialists, events have a material explanation; that is, they must be explainable by reference to matter. This aligns materialism with determinism in that there are material cause for all events and that all events follow from its cause. Marx’s theory of historical materialism is grounded in the belief that changes in material conditions in society is the primary influence on how society and the economy is organized. He considered that the means of production (land, natural resources, and technology) for material goods had a direct bearing on the social relations of production. Under capitalism, Karl Marx identified that people sell their labor power in return for money, which allows them to survive.
Materialism can be subdivided into varying but complementary versions. Theoretical materialism is the doctrine that views matter as the only substratum of all existence. It argues that all mental or spiritual phenomena are merely functions of it. Psychological materialism maintains that the spirit of all living organisms consist of matter or is a function of physical processes; physiological materialism considers that all mental activities can be explained by biological processes. Lastly, dialectic materialism regards all important historical events as results of the economic developments of the human society.
Bibliography
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Deyev, Valery. Philosophy and Social Theory: An Introduction to Historical Materialism. Moscow: Progress, 1987. Print.
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Hughes, Jonathan. Ecology and Historical Materialism. New York: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print. Studies in Marxism and Social Theory.
Jenks, Chris. Core Sociological Dichotomies. New York: Sage, 1998. Print.
Shimp, Kaleb. “The Validity of Karl Marx’s Theory of Historical Materialism.” Major Themes in Economics (2009): 35–56. Print.
Turner, Brian. Religion and Social Theory: A Materialist Perspective. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1983. Print.
Zizek, Slavoj. Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism. New York: Verso, 2012. Print.