An Affirmative History and Definition by Richard C. Vitzthum reviewed by Keith Augustine Materialism is the philosophical position that everything that exists is physical, or in its weaker form, that everything that exists is physical or depends upon something physical for its existence. Materialism presents a truly contemporary materialist philosophy holding that nature is a continuous unity which did not arise from absolute nothingness and is indifferent to the well-being of humanity. All thought and emotion is rooted in purely physical brain processes, and consequently death is the cessation of consciousness.
Materialism is a very thoughtful defense of the simple thesis that everything is physical.
If you choose to read only one book on materialism, this should be it. Vitzthum emphasizes the correct materialist assumptions of Lucretius, d'Holbach, and Buechner in light of contemporary scientific knowledge and philosophy throughout the book, yet often notes where these authors turned out to be dead wrong on scientific and philosophical issues. He also gives historical background to these works, noting the significance of other Enlightenment materialists of d'Holbach's time and presenting Buechner's work as a reaction to the popular Hegelian idealism in nineteenth-century Germany that contended that the world consisted solely of ideas, not of matter. A variety of answers to that question are given by reductionism, property dualism, eliminativism, and functionalism, but Vitzthum concludes that mental states are completely reducible to brain processes. The 'free will' that exists is a freedom to choose between alternatives, and more complex organisms have more complex responses to their environments, thus more options to choose from.