Materialism

context: Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are identical with material interactions.
qas: answers: text: a form of philosophical monism
question: What is materialism?

answers: text: matter
question: In nature, this is an essential substance?

context: Materialism is closely related to physicalism, the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Philosophical physicalism has evolved from materialism with the discoveries of the physical sciences to incorporate more sophisticated notions of physicality than mere ordinary matter, such as: spacetime, physical energies and forces, dark matter, and so on. Thus the term "physicalism" is preferred over "materialism" by some, while others use the terms as if they are synonymous.
qas: answers: text: spacetime, physical energies and forces, dark matter
question: What are some examples of philosophical physicalism?

answers: text: Materialism
question: Some people consider physicalism to be synonymous with what?

context: Materialism belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism, neutral monism, and spiritualism.
qas: answers: text: monist ontology
question: What class does materialism belong to?

context: Despite the large number of philosophical schools and subtle nuances between many, all philosophies are said to fall into one of two primary categories, which are defined in contrast to each other: Idealism, and materialism.[a] The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality, and the primary distinction between them is the way they answer two fundamental questions: "what does reality consist of?" and "how does it originate?" To idealists, spirit or mind or the objects of mind (ideas) are primary, and matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary, the product of matter acting upon matter.
qas: answers: text: "what does reality consist of?"
question: What is the first question to ask in order to define the two classes?

answers: text: "how does it originate?"
question: What is the second question to ask in order to define the two classes?

answers: text: spirit or mind or the objects of mind (ideas)
question: An idealist considers what as the most important?

answers: text: matter
question: A materialist considers what as the most important?

context: The materialist view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically, famously by René Descartes. However, by itself materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice, it is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another.
qas: answers: text: materialist
question: Was René Descartes an idealist or a materialist?

answers: text: how material substance should be characterized.
question: Materialism does not define what?

context: During the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extended the concept of materialism to elaborate a materialist conception of history centered on the roughly empirical world of human activity (practice, including labor) and the institutions created, reproduced, or destroyed by that activity (see materialist conception of history). Later Marxists developed the notion of dialectical materialism which characterized later Marxist philosophy and method.
qas: answers: text: dialectical materialism
question: What type of materialism defined the Marxist philosophy?

context: Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of Eurasia during what Karl Jaspers termed the Axial Age (approximately 800 to 200 BC).
qas: answers: text: Karl Jaspers
question: Who coined the Axial Age?

answers: text: Eurasia
question: In what part of the world did materialism develop during the Axial Age?

context: In Ancient Indian philosophy, materialism developed around 600 BC with the works of Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy. Kanada became one of the early proponents of atomism. The Nyaya–Vaisesika school (600 BC - 100 BC) developed one of the earliest forms of atomism, though their proofs of God and their positing that the consciousness was not material precludes labelling them as materialists. Buddhist atomism and the Jaina school continued the atomic tradition.
qas: answers: text: 600 BC
question: Around what time did materialism become part of Ancient Indian philosophy?

answers: text: Ajita Kesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy
question: At that time, who helped develop materialism?

answers: text: Nyaya–Vaisesika school
question: What school advanced atomism?

answers: text: 600 BC - 100 BC
question: Between what years did the school advance atomism?

context: Materialism is often associated with reductionism, according to which the objects or phenomena individuated at one level of description, if they are genuine, must be explicable in terms of the objects or phenomena at some other level of description — typically, at a more reduced level. Non-reductive materialism explicitly rejects this notion, however, taking the material constitution of all particulars to be consistent with the existence of real objects, properties, or phenomena not explicable in the terms canonically used for the basic material constituents. Jerry Fodor influentially argues this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of basic physics. A lot of vigorous literature has grown up around the relation between these views.
qas: answers: text: reductionism
question: Materialism is linked to what?

context: Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaxagoras (ca. 500 BC – 428 BC), Epicurus and Democritus prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (ca. 99 BC – ca. 55 BC) reflects the mechanistic philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. According to this view, all that exists is matter and void, and all phenomena result from different motions and conglomerations of base material particles called "atoms" (literally: "indivisibles"). De Rerum Natura provides mechanistic explanations for phenomena such as erosion, evaporation, wind, and sound. Famous principles like "nothing can touch body but body" first appeared in the works of Lucretius. Democritus and Epicurus however did not hold to a monist ontology since they held to the ontological separation of matter and space i.e. space being "another kind" of being, indicating that the definition of "materialism" is wider than given scope for in this article.
qas: answers: text: Lucretius
question: De Rerum Natura is a poem by who?

answers: text: mechanistic explanations
question: What kinf of explanation does De Rerum Natura provide for phenomena?

context: Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta (6th century) in his work Tattvopaplavasimha ("The upsetting of all principles") refuted the Nyaya Sutra epistemology. The materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400. When Madhavacharya compiled Sarva-darśana-samgraha (a digest of all philosophies) in the 14th century, he had no Cārvāka/Lokāyata text to quote from, or even refer to.
qas: answers: text: Tattvopaplavasimha ("The upsetting of all principles")
question: Name the title of the work by Jayaraashi Bhatta.

answers: text: materialistic Cārvāka philosophy
question: Which type of philosphy did not continue after 1400?

answers: text: a digest of all philosophies
question: What is Sarva-darśana-samgraha?

answers: text: Madhavacharya
question: Who wrote the Sarva-darśana-samgraha?

context: In early 12th-century al-Andalus, the Arabian philosopher, Ibn Tufail (Abubacer), wrote discussions on materialism in his philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus), while vaguely foreshadowing the idea of a historical materialism.
qas: answers: text: Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus)
question: What is the name of the novel written by Ibn Tufail?

context: The French cleric Pierre Gassendi (1592-1665) represented the materialist tradition in opposition to the attempts of René Descartes (1596-1650) to provide the natural sciences with dualist foundations. There followed the materialist and atheist abbé Jean Meslier (1664-1729), Julien Offray de La Mettrie, the German-French Paul-Henri Thiry Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789), the Encyclopedist Denis Diderot (1713-1784), and other French Enlightenment thinkers; as well as (in England) John "Walking" Stewart (1747-1822), whose insistence in seeing matter as endowed with a moral dimension had a major impact on the philosophical poetry of William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
qas: answers: text: 1592-1665
question: Pierre Gassendi lived from what year to what year?

answers: text: 1596-1650
question: René Descartes lived from what year to what year?

answers: text: 1664-1729
question: abbé Jean Meslier lived from what year to what year?

answers: text: 1713-1784
question: Denis Diderot lived from what year to what year?

answers: text: 1770-1850
question: William Wordsworth lived from what year to what year?

context: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote that "...materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself". He claimed that an observing subject can only know material objects through the mediation of the brain and its particular organization. That is, the brain itself is the "determiner" of how material objects will be experienced or perceived:
qas: answers: text: 1788-1860
question: Arthur Schopenhauer lived from what year to what year?

answers: text: how material objects will be experienced or perceived
question: What did he say that the brain would decide?

context: The German materialist and atheist anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach would signal a new turn in materialism through his book, The Essence of Christianity (1841), which provided a humanist account of religion as the outward projection of man's inward nature. Feuerbach's materialism would later heavily influence Karl Marx.
qas: answers: text: Ludwig Feuerbach
question: Who wrote "The Essence of Christianity"?

answers: text: 1841
question: In what year was "The Essence of Christianity" written?

answers: text: the outward projection of man's inward nature
question: What did the author of "The Essence of Christianity" consider religion to be?

answers: text: Karl Marx
question: The author's ideas would later influence what well known philosopher?

context: Many current and recent philosophers—e.g., Daniel Dennett, Willard Van Orman Quine, Donald Davidson, and Jerry Fodor—operate within a broadly physicalist or materialist framework, producing rival accounts of how best to accommodate mind, including functionalism, anomalous monism, identity theory, and so on.
qas: answers: text: functionalism, anomalous monism, identity theory
question: In regards to the mind, what are 3 theories that modern day philosophers try to harmonize?

context: The nature and definition of matter - like other key concepts in science and philosophy - have occasioned much debate. Is there a single kind of matter (hyle) which everything is made of, or multiple kinds? Is matter a continuous substance capable of expressing multiple forms (hylomorphism), or a number of discrete, unchanging constituents (atomism)? Does it have intrinsic properties (substance theory), or is it lacking them (prima materia)?
qas: answers: text: matter
question: What is hyle?

context: One challenge to the traditional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of field physics in the 19th century. Relativity shows that matter and energy (including the spatially distributed energy of fields) are interchangeable. This enables the ontological view that energy is prima materia and matter is one of its forms. On the other hand, the Standard Model of Particle physics uses quantum field theory to describe all interactions. On this view it could be said that fields are prima materia and the energy is a property of the field.
qas: answers: text: matter and energy
question: Relativity illustrates that what is interchangeable?

answers: text: energy
question: Ontological theory suggests that what is the main substance?

answers: text: fields
question: Quantum field theory suggest what is the main substance?

context: According to the dominant cosmological model, the Lambda-CDM model, less than 5% of the universe's energy density is made up of the "matter" described by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and the majority of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy - with little agreement amongst scientists about what these are made of.
qas: answers: text: Lambda-CDM model
question: Which model suggests that matter is 5% of the universe?

answers: text: dark matter
question: What type of matter does the model consider it to be?

context: With the advent of quantum physics, some scientists believed the concept of matter had merely changed, while others believed the conventional position could no longer be maintained. For instance Werner Heisenberg said "The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct 'actuality' of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible... atoms are not things." Likewise, some philosophers[which?] feel that these dichotomies necessitate a switch from materialism to physicalism. Others use the terms "materialism" and "physicalism" interchangeably.
qas: answers: text: things
question: Werner Heisenberg suggested that atoms are not what?

context: Some modern day physicists and science writers—such as Paul Davies and John Gribbin—have argued that materialism has been disproven by certain scientific findings in physics, such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory. In 1991, Gribbin and Davies released their book The Matter Myth, the first chapter of which, "The Death of Materialism", contained the following passage:
qas: answers: text: quantum mechanics and chaos theory.
question: What are some of the findings that support their argument?

answers: text: The Matter Myth
question: What is the name of the 1991 book by Paul Davies and John Gribbins?

context: Davies' and Gribbin's objections are shared by proponents of digital physics who view information rather than matter to be fundamental. Their objections were also shared by some founders of quantum theory, such as Max Planck, who wrote:
qas: answers: text: information
question: Digital physicists consider what to be more important than matter?

context: According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907-1912, materialism, defined as "a philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality in the world [...] denies the existence of God and the soul". Materialism, in this view, therefore becomes incompatible with most world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In such a context one can conflate materialism with atheism. Most of Hinduism and transcendentalism regards all matter as an illusion called Maya, blinding humans from knowing "the truth". Maya is the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday consciousness has become entangled. Maya gets destroyed for a person when s/he perceives Brahman with transcendental knowledge.
qas: answers: text: religions
question: Based on the above definition, materialism is not consistent with what?

context: In contrast, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, taught: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." This spirit element has always existed; it is co-eternal with God. It is also called "intelligence" or "the light of truth", which like all observable matter "was not created or made, neither indeed can be". Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints view the revelations of Joseph Smith as a restoration of original Christian doctrine, which they believe post-apostolic theologians began to corrupt in the centuries after Christ. The writings of many[quantify] of these theologians indicate a clear influence of Greek metaphysical philosophies such as Neoplatonism, which characterized divinity as an utterly simple, immaterial, formless, substance/essence (ousia) that transcended all that was physical. Despite strong opposition from many Christians, this metaphysical depiction of God eventually became incorporated into the doctrine of the Christian church, displacing the original Judeo-Christian concept of a physical, corporeal God who created humans in His image and likeness.
qas: answers: text: simple, immaterial, formless, substance/essence (ousia) that transcended all that was physical
question: Neoplatonism describes divinity as what?

answers: text: Christians
question: Which religious group strongly opposed the idea of Neoplatonism?

context: An argument for idealism, such as those of Hegel and Berkeley, is ipso facto an argument against materialism. Matter can be argued to be redundant, as in bundle theory, and mind-independent properties can in turn be reduced to subjective percepts. Berkeley presents an example of the latter by pointing out that it is impossible to gather direct evidence of matter, as there is no direct experience of matter; all that is experienced is perception, whether internal or external. As such, the existence of matter can only be assumed from the apparent (perceived) stability of perceptions; it finds absolutely no evidence in direct experience.
qas: answers: text: materialism
question: If you believe in idealism, you are disbeliving in what?

context: If matter and energy are seen as necessary to explain the physical world, but incapable of explaining mind, dualism results. Emergence, holism, and process philosophy seek to ameliorate the perceived shortcomings of traditional (especially mechanistic) materialism without abandoning materialism entirely.
qas: answers: text: Emergence, holism, and process philosophy
question: What 3 types of philosophies attempt to correct the problem with matter and energy without removing every belief about materialism?

context: Some critics object to materialism as part of an overly skeptical, narrow or reductivist approach to theorizing, rather than to the ontological claim that matter is the only substance. Particle physicist and Anglican theologian John Polkinghorne objects to what he calls promissory materialism — claims that materialistic science will eventually succeed in explaining phenomena it has not so far been able to explain. Polkinghorne prefers "dual-aspect monism" to faith in materialism.
qas: answers: text: dual-aspect monism
question: Instead of faith, John Polkinghorne relies on what when it comes to the theory of materialism?