What is materialism?

Laika said:

lol. it's still "red economist". I had a name change about a week ago. I thought maybe the Soviet space dog would be the clue.

Click to expand...

Well great, always liked you.

Laika

Don't let em get ya down mate., you're smart, you can handle, this stuff.
Nil carborundum ilegitimi.

Bunyip said:

Many recent threads indicate that there are some very, very different understandings of what 'materialism' means.

As I understand it, it is simply a lens - a philosophical approach that assumes there will be a natural explanation. As opposed to atheism, nihilism, communism and all the other 'isms' I see it equated to. It does not deny anything, it does not reject paranormal concepts, it is not challenged by the unknown.

So what is 'materialism' to you?

Click to expand...

Good question, I like you already.

From a Philosophical viewpoint Materialism is often described as the belief that only matter and it's interactions is all that exists. One proponent of such a view was Titus Lucretius Carus who talks about it in his poem, On the Nature of Things.

"Nothing ever springs miraculously from nothing... all are formed from fixed seeds... Any given thing possesses a distinct creative capacity... In every case, growth is a gradual process... Things are created from a definite, appointed substance... All things are composed of imperishable seeds... No visible object ever suffers total destruction, since nature renews one thing from another, and does not sanction the birth of anything, unless she receives the compensation of another's death."

Matter exists in the form of invisible particles, e.g. the particles of the wind, of odors, cold, sound. Wearing down of objects is accompanied by a loss of substance which is invisible. Empty space (void) exists. Lighter objects contain more void within. "The universe, in its essential nature is composed of two things, namely matter and the void... All predictable things are either properties or accidents of matter and void... Time has no independent existence; rather from events themselves is derived a sense of what has occurred in time past, of what is happening at the present, and of what is to follow in the future..." -Titus Lucretius Carus

However, as the general use of words often change in the modern day from their earlier use, of which the word "theory" is a great example, the definition of the word in other contexts is different from the philosophical term. I generally observe it being used to describe those who are either not religious/spiritual or people who value material objects over all else.

I hope this answered your question to your satisfaction.

Bunyip said:

George-ananda

Materialism does not reject any concept, it just does not start from the assumption that Ghosts, spirits and so on are beings.
This is essentially how science came to be - long ago people attributed all manner of unexplained phenomena to beings. As we have learned we have found natural explanations for many of them, from lightning to birth.
Materialism does not reject any such concept, it just opens a door through which they can be further explored by not assuming that there is a being causing it.

Click to expand...

I think George's objection is that materialism reduces spirit to matter, which essentially is a rejection of it.

Jeremy Taylor said:

Eliminative materialists, I suppose do not, but I think it might be stretching it to say they are in their right mind.

You don't mean it in this way, but materialism and even naturalism have generally had a hard time explaining the existence of abstract concepts.

Click to expand...

Jeremy, you got confused b the wordplay I got into with Bunyip who that post was directed to. People in their right mind can certainly not believe in God. I was just saying no one in their right mind would claim 'the concept of God' does not exist. Just wordplay, never mind

I was referring to the concept of God. Eliminative Materialism rejects what is sometimes called folk psychology, which I believe includes concepts.


http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/

Willamena said:

I think George's objection is that materialism reduces spirit to matter, which essentially is a rejection of it.

Click to expand...

How does that follow? How does reducing something to matter equate to rejecting it?

Bunyip said:

How does that follow? How does reducing something to matter equate to rejecting it?

Click to expand...

"Reduction" is a thought process, a means of making sense of things in terms of something else.

If we reduce spirit to matter we deny spirit in its own terms.

Willamena said:

"Reduction" is a thought process, a means of making sense of things in terms of something else.

If we reduce spirit to matter we deny spirit in its own terms.

Click to expand...

What? Why not just try to give a straight answer? There is so much spin in that last response it is rendered meaningless.

If we reduce spirit to matter we deny spirit in its own terms? What are you trying to say?