Materialism

Lore & Background

Materialism developed independently in several Eurasian regions during the Axial Age (c. Ancient Greek atomists like Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus prefigured later materialists, with Lucretius's poem De Rerum Natura reflecting their mechanistic philosophy that all that exists is matter and void. In early modern philosophy, French thinkers such as Pierre Gassendi, Julien Offray de La Mettrie, and Denis Diderot advanced materialism, while in England it was developed by Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.

Reader's Guide

Materialism's significance lies in its foundational role in modern science and philosophy, asserting that all phenomena, including consciousness, are explicable through material interactions and physical processes. It has shaped debates on reductionism, with non-reductive materialism rejecting the notion that all real objects must be explicable in terms of basic material constituents. The term 'physicalism' emerged in the 1930s with the Vienna Circle to accommodate entities like forces and spacetime that are not matter in the classical sense. Materialism's legacy includes its influence on historical materialism, which grounds social change in modes of production and exchange, and its ongoing contrast with idealism, dualism, and other ontologies. The article notes that some philosophers, such as Mary Midgley, find the concept of 'matter' elusive and poorly defined.

Did You Know?

• The term 'materialism' appears in English toward the end of the 17th century, while 'physicalism' was introduced in the 1930s by Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap.
• Ancient Greek atomists like Democritus and Epicurus did not espouse a monist ontology, instead separating matter and space as different kinds of being.
• Non-reductive materialism, held by Jerry Fodor, rejects reductionism and allows for real objects not explicable in terms of basic material constituents.