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MATERIALISM (from Lat. materia, matter)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 878 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MATERIALISM (from See also:Lat. materia, See also:matter) , in See also:philosophy, the theory which regards all the facts of the universe as explainable in terms of matter and See also:motion, and in particular explains all psychical processes by See also:physical and chemical changes in the See also:nervous See also:system. It is thus opposed both to natural See also:realism and to See also:idealism. For the natural realist stands upon the See also:common-sense position that minds and material See also:objects have equally effective existence; while the idealist explains matter by mind and denies that mind can be explained by matter. The various forms into which materialism may be classified correspond to the various causes which induce men to taae up materialistic views. Naive materialism is due to a cause which still, perhaps, has no small See also:power, the natural difficulty which persons who have had no philosophic training experience in observing and appreciating the importance of the immaterial facts of consciousness. The pre-Socratics may be classed as naive materialists in this sense; though, as at that See also:early See also:period the contrast between matter and spirit had not been fully realized and matter was credited with properties that belong to See also:life, it is usual to apply the See also:term See also:hylozoism (q.v.) to the earliest See also:stage of See also:Greek metaphysical theory. It is not difficult to discern the See also:influence of naive materialism in contemporary thinking. We see it in See also:Huxley, and still more in See also:Haeckel, whose materialism (which he chooses to term " See also:monism ") is evidently conditioned by See also:ignorance of the See also:history and See also:present position of See also:speculation. Cosmological materialism is that See also:form of the See also:doctrine in which the dominant See also:motive is the formation of a comprehensive See also:world-See also:scheme: See also:Hobbes to the present See also:time, and See also:English materialism is more important perhaps than that of any other See also:country. But, from the See also:national distrust of system, it has not been elaborated into a consistent metaphysic, but is rather traceable as a tendency harmonizing with the spirit of natural See also:science. Hobbes, See also:Locke, See also:Hume, See also:Mill and See also:Herbert See also:Spencer are not systematic materialists, but show tendencies towards materialism. See See also:METAPHYSICS; and See also:Lange's History of Materialism.

End of Article: MATERIALISM (from Lat. materia, matter)

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