Editing Materialism

{{Short description|Form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature}}
{{Redirect|Materialists|the 2025 film|Materialists (film)|other uses of the term materialism|Materialism (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}

'''Materialism''' is a form of [[monism|philosophical monism]] according to which [[matter]] is the fundamental [[Substance theory|substance]] in [[nature]], and all things, including [[mind|mental states]] and [[consciousness]], are results of [[material]] interactions of material things. According to philosophical materialism, mind and consciousness are caused by physical processes, such as the [[neurochemistry]] of the [[human brain]] and [[nervous system]], without which they cannot exist. Materialism directly contrasts with monistic [[idealism]], according to which consciousness is the fundamental substance of nature.

Materialism is closely related to [[physicalism]]—the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Philosophical physicalism has evolved from materialism with the theories of the physical sciences to incorporate forms of physicality in addition to ordinary matter (e.g. [[spacetime]], [[energy|physical energies]] and [[force]]s, and [[exotic matter]]). Thus, some prefer the term ''physicalism'' to ''materialism'', while others use them as synonyms.

Discoveries of neural correlates between consciousness and the brain are taken as empirical support for materialism, but some [[Philosophy of mind|philosophers of mind]] find that association fallacious or consider it compatible with non-materialist ideas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2011/01/against-neurobabble.html|title= Edward Feser: Against "Neurobabble"|date= 20 January 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/a-real-science-of-mind/|title= Tyler Burge, A Real Science of Mind - The New York Times|date= 19 December 2010}}</ref> Alternative philosophies opposed or alternative to materialism or physicalism include idealism, [[pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]], [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]], [[panpsychism]], and other forms of [[monism]].

[[Epicureanism]] is a philosophy of materialism from [[classical antiquity]] that was a major forerunner of modern science. Classical atomism predates [[Epicurus]]: fifth‑century BCE thinkers [[Leucippus]] and [[Democritus]] explained all change as the collisions of indivisible atoms moving in the void.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient Atomism |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/ |access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref> Epicureanism refined this materialist picture. Epicurus held that everything—including mind—consists solely of atoms moving in the void; to explain how parallel falling atoms could ever meet, he postulated the ''clinamen'', an extremely slight lateral deviation that initiates collisions without invoking supernatural causes and that need not imply genuine indeterminism.<ref>{{cite web |title=Epicurus (section 4.2: The Swerve and Collisions) |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/ |access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Tim O’Keefe |title=Epicurus on Freedom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |chapter=5 “The swerve and collisions” |pages=95‑118}}</ref>

==Overview==

[[File:Nebulosa de Eta Carinae o NGC 3372.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Star]]s and a [[nebula]].]]
Materialism belongs to the class of [[monist]] [[ontology]], and is thus different from ontological theories based on [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]] or [[pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]]. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism is in contrast to [[idealism]], [[neutral monism]], and [[spiritualism (philosophy)|spiritualism]]. It can also contrast with [[phenomenalism]], [[vitalism]], and [[dual-aspect monism]]. Its materiality can, in some ways, be linked to the concept of [[determinism]], as espoused by [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Idoko |first=Barnabas Obiora |date=2023-12-14 |title=A CRITICAL EPOCHAL REVIEW OF PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM |url=https://journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/TIJAH/article/view/2649 |journal=Trinitarian: International Journal of Arts and Humanities |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1}}</ref>

Despite the multiplicity of named schools, philosophy ultimately confronts a single binary: materialism versus idealism.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Edwards |editor-first=Paul |title=The Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=1972 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=0028949501}}; {{cite book |last=Priest |first=Stephen |title=Theories of the Mind |year=1991 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=0140130691}}; {{cite book |last=Novack |first=George |title=The Origins of Materialism |year=1979 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |location=New York |isbn=0873480228}}</ref> Uncompromising materialism—today often called physicalism—holds that the universe is nothing but matter‑energy in motion; every phenomenon, from stellar fusion to human thought, is exhaustively explicable as organised interactions of physical entities.<ref>{{cite book |last=Priest |first=Stephen |title=Theories of the Mind |year=1991 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=0140130691}}</ref> Matter is self‑moving and self‑organising, so it is scientifically superfluous to posit immaterial substances or disembodied minds. On this view, consciousness is a higher‑order property of certain complex material systems, not an ontological primitive. Idealism, by contrast, reverses the causal arrow: it elevates mind, spirit or abstract Forms to constitutive reality and demotes the material world to a mere appearance—a position that historically provided philosophical cover for religion and other supernatural doctrines.<ref name="Novack 1979">{{cite book |last=Novack |first=George |title=The Origins of Materialism |year=1979 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |location=New York |isbn=0873480228}}</ref>

Although the Western canon was long dominated by explicit idealists—owing to church patronage, university control, and periodic censorship—materialist undercurrents never disappeared. Thinkers including the pre‑Socratic atomists and [[Lucretius]], [[Baruch Spinoza]] and the French ''philosophes'', [[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]], and 20th‑century analytical naturalists advanced naturalistic explanations of mind and society even when such views risked condemnation or suppression.<ref name="Novack 1979"/> Contemporary debate subdivides materialism into identity theory, functional and non‑reductive physicalism, eliminative materialism, and other variants, but all share the thesis that whatever exists is ultimately physical.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eliminative Materialism |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/ |access-date=2025-04-17}}</ref>

Modern philosophical materialists extend the definition of other scientifically observable entities such as [[energy]], [[force]]s, and the [[spacetime continuum]]; some philosophers, such as [[Mary Midgley]], suggest that the concept of "matter" is elusive and poorly defined.<ref>[[Mary Midgley]] ''The Myths We Live By''.</ref>

During the 19th century, Marx and Engels broadened materialism into a ''[[materialist conception of history]]'' centred on concrete human activity—above all labour—and on the institutions that such activity creates, reproduces, or abolishes. Drawing on both ancient atomism and the modern materialism of their day, they forged what was later called '''Marxist materialism''', eliminating residual idealist elements and unifying the results into a single, consistently materialist worldview (see [[#Modern philosophy|Modern philosophy]]).<ref>Marx, Karl. 1873. "[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/p3.htm Afterword to the Second German Edition]," ''[[Capital (Marx)|Capital]]'', vol.&nbsp;1. Transcribed by H.&nbsp;Kuhls.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Marx |first=Karl |title=Afterword to the Second German Edition |work=Capital, vol.&nbsp;1 |year=1873 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/p3.htm}}</ref> Marx’s materialism long predated his encounter with [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|G. W. F. Hegel]]. While still a student, Marx filled seven ''Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy'' (1839), analysing Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius from an avowedly materialist standpoint.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marx's Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy (1839) |website=Marxists Internet Archive |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1839/notebook/index.htm |access-date=2025-04-17}}</ref> His 1841 doctoral dissertation, ''The Difference between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature'', likewise defends the ancient atomists against teleological speculation and affirms contingency in nature.<ref>{{cite web |title=Doctoral Dissertation of Karl Marx (1841) |website=Marxists Internet Archive |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1841/dr-theses/index.htm |access-date=2025-04-17}}</ref> These texts show Marx already rejecting metaphysical dualism a decade before ''[[Das Kapital|Capital]]''.

Marx's subsequent ''[[Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right]]'' (1843–44) therefore did not convert an idealist into a materialist; rather, the work borrows small aspects of Hegel’s idealist dialectic, grounds it in material world, and rejects it very explicitly.<ref>{{cite web |title=Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843) |website=Marxists Internet Archive |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm |access-date=2025-04-17}}</ref> Engels, arriving independently at a similar position, joined Marx in fusing Greek atomism, Enlightenment science, and a demystified dialectic into what later became known as '''Marxist materialism''', a consistently materialist worldview that treats historical development as the product of human labour under definite social relations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marx and Engels on Philosophy: Early Materialism |website=Marxists Internet Archive |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/philosophy/index.htm |access-date=2025-04-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Foundations of Marx's Materialist Epistemology |journal=Studies in Marxism |year=2024 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-74338-2_1 |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-74338-2_1 |access-date=2025-04-17|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Non-reductive materialism ===
<!--'Non-reductive materialism' redirects here-->
Materialism is often associated with [[Reduction (philosophy)|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, 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]] held this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of basic physics.<ref>Fodor, Jerry A. 1981. ''RePresentations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science''. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. {{ISBN|9780262060790}}. ([http://mitp-content-server.mit.edu:18180/books/content/sectbyfn?collid=books_pres_0&id=5895&fn=9780262560276_sch_0001.pdf Excerpt of Ch. 1]).</ref>

==History==
{{See also|History of naturalism}}

===Early history===

====Before Common Era====

[[File:Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia - Leucippus - Luca Giordano.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Leucippus]] (4th century BC), father of [[atomism]] and teacher of [[Democritus]]. Painting by [[Luca Giordano]], circa 1653.]]
Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of [[Eurasia]] during what [[Karl Jaspers]] termed the [[Axial Age]] ({{Circa}}&nbsp;800–200&nbsp;BC).

In [[ancient Indian philosophy]], materialism developed around 600&nbsp;BC with the works of [[Ajita Kesakambali]], [[Payasi]], [[Kanada (philosopher)|Kanada]] and the proponents of the [[Cārvāka]] school of philosophy. Kanada became one of the early proponents of [[atomism]]. The [[Nyaya]]–[[Vaisesika]] school (c.&nbsp;600–100&nbsp;BC) developed one of the earliest forms of atomism (although their proofs of God and their positing that consciousness was not material precludes labelling them as materialists). [[Buddhist atomism]] and the [[Jainism|Jaina]] school continued the atomic tradition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Berryman |first1=Sylvia |title=Ancient Atomism |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=5 June 2024 |date=2022}}</ref>

[[Ancient Greek philosophy|Ancient Greek]] [[atomists]] like [[Leucippus]], [[Democritus]] and [[Epicurus]] prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem ''[[De Rerum Natura]]'' by [[Lucretius]] (99&nbsp;–&nbsp;c.&nbsp;55&nbsp;BC) reflects the [[mechanism (philosophy)|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 Lucretius's work. Democritus and Epicurus did not espouse a monist ontology, instead espousing the ontological separation of matter and space (i.e. that space is "another kind" of being).{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

====Early Common Era====
[[Wang Chong]] (27&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;100&nbsp;AD) was a Chinese thinker of the early [[Common Era]] said to be a materialist.<ref>{{Google books |id=tAeFipOVx4MC |page=228 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (2006)}}</ref> Later Indian materialist [[Jayaraashi Bhatta]] (6th century) in his work ''Tattvopaplavasimha'' (''The Upsetting of All Principles'') refuted the [[Nyāya Sūtras|Nyāya Sūtra]] [[epistemology]]. The materialistic [[Cārvāka]] philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400; when [[Madhavacharya of Sringeri|Madhavacharya]] compiled ''Sarva-darśana-samgraha'' (''A Digest of All Philosophies'') in the 14th century, he had no Cārvāka (or Lokāyata) text to quote from or refer to.<ref>[http://www.carvaka4india.com/2011/12/history-of-indian-materialism.html ''History of Indian Materialism''], Ramakrishna Bhattacharya</ref>

In early 12th-century [[al-Andalus]], [[Early Islamic philosophy|Arabian philosopher]] [[Ibn Tufail]] ({{a.k.a.}}&nbsp;Abubacer) discussed materialism in his [[philosophical novel]], ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan]]'' (''Philosophus Autodidactus''), while vaguely foreshadowing [[historical materialism]].<ref name="Urvoy">Urvoy, Dominique. 1996. "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)." pp. 38–46 in ''The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān'', edited by [[Lawrence Conrad|L. I. Conrad]]. [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-09300-1}}.</ref>

====Modern philosophy<!--'Anthropological materialism' and 'German materialism' redirect here-->====

[[File:Lucretius pointing to the casus.jpg|thumb|upright|Atomists proposed that the universe consists of atoms moving in space. ''[[De rerum natura|Of the Nature of Things]]'' by [[Lucretius]], 1682.]]
In France, [[Pierre Gassendi]] (1592–1665)<ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gassendi/ Pierre Gassendi (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]</ref> 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 [[atheism|atheist]] ''abbé'' [[Jean Meslier]] (1664–1729), along with the [[French materialism|French materialists]]: [[Julien Offray de La Mettrie]] (1709–1751), [[Denis Diderot]] (1713–1784), [[Étienne Bonnot de Condillac]] (1714–1780), [[Claude Adrien Helvétius]] (1715–1771), German-French [[Baron d'Holbach]] (1723–1789), and other French [[The Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinkers.<ref name="Mahan Friedrich 2003 p. 588">{{cite book | last1=Mahan | first1=A. | last2=Friedrich | first2=R. | title=A Critical History of Philosophy | publisher=Salem Publishing Solutions | year=2003 | isbn=978-1-59160-363-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfxPkYVpLqoC&pg=PA588 | access-date=2024-04-07 | pages=587–589}}</ref>

In England, materialism was developed in the philosophies of [[Francis Bacon]] (1561–1626), [[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679),<ref name=SEP>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes/ Thomas Hobbes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)],</ref> and [[John Locke]] (1632–1704).<ref name="Henry 2012 p. 24">{{cite book | last=Henry | first=John F. | title=The Making of Neoclassical Economics (Routledge Revivals) | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-136-81053-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkCRxNmxfFYC&pg=PA24 | access-date=2024-04-07 | pages=23–25}}</ref> [[Scottish Enlightenment]] philosopher [[David Hume]] (1711–1776) became one of the most important materialist philosophers in the 18th century.<ref name="Brown Ladyman 2019 p.">{{cite book | last1=Brown | first1=Robin | last2=Ladyman | first2=James | title=Materialism: A Historical and Philosophical Inquiry | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2019 | isbn=978-0-429-53537-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6QqWDwAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-04-07}}</ref>  [[John "Walking" Stewart]] (1747–1822) believed matter has a [[moral]] dimension, which had a major impact on the philosophical poetry of [[William Wordsworth]] (1770–1850).

In [[late modern philosophy]], German atheist [[anthropologist]] [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] signaled a new turn in materialism in his 1841 book ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'', which presented a [[Humanism|humanist]] account of religion as the outward projection of man's inward nature. Feuerbach introduced '''anthropological materialism''',<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> a version of materialism that views materialist anthropology as the [[universal science]].<ref>[[Axel Honneth]], [[Hans Joas]], ''Social Action and Human Nature'', Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 18.</ref>

Feuerbach's variety of materialism heavily influenced [[Karl Marx]],<ref>Nicholas Churchich, ''Marxism and Alienation'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990, p. 57: "Although Marx has rejected Feuerbach's abstract materialism," Lenin says that Feuerbach's views "are consistently materialist," implying that Feuerbach's conception of causality is entirely in line with dialectical materialism."</ref> who in the late 19th century elaborated the concept of [[historical materialism]]—the basis for what Marx and [[Friedrich Engels]] outlined as ''[[scientific socialism]]'':

{{Blockquote|text=The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in men's better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange. They are to be sought, not in the philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch.|author=Friedrich Engels|source=''Socialism: Scientific and Utopian'' (1880)}}

Through his ''[[Dialectics of Nature]]'' (1883), Engels later developed a "materialist dialectic" [[philosophy of nature]], a worldview that [[Georgi Plekhanov]], the father of Russian [[Marxism]], called ''[[dialectical materialism]]''.<ref>see Plekhanov, Georgi: 1891. "For the Sixtieth Anniversary of Hegel's Death;" 1893. ''Essays on the History of Materialism''; and 1895. ''[[The Development of the Monist View of History]]''.</ref> In early 20th-century [[Russian philosophy]], [[Vladimir Lenin]] further developed dialectical materialism in his 1909 book ''[[Materialism and Empirio-criticism]]'', which connects his opponents' political conceptions to their anti-materialist philosophies.

A more [[Metaphysical naturalism|naturalist]]-oriented materialist school of thought that developed in the mid-19th century was '''German materialism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->, which included [[Ludwig Büchner]] (1824–1899), the Dutch-born [[Jacob Moleschott]] (1822–1893), and [[Carl Vogt]] (1817–1895),<ref>[[Owen Chadwick|Chadwick, Owen]]. 1990. ''The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century''. Cambridge University Press.

'''p. 165''': "During the 1850s German...scientists conducted a controversy known...as the materialistic controversy. It was specially associated with the names of Vogt, Moleschott and Büchner."

'''p. 173''': "Frenchmen were surprised to see Büchner and Vogt.... [T]he French were surprised at German materialism."</ref><ref>''[[The Nineteenth Century and After]]'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=8-VXAAAAIAAJ&q= Vol. 151]. 1952. p. 227: "the Continental materialism of Moleschott and Buchner<!--[sic]-->."</ref> even though they had different views on core issues such as the evolution and the origins of life.<ref>[[Andreas Daum|Andreas W. Daum]], ''Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914''. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, pp. 210, 293–99.</ref>

===Contemporary history===
{{See also|Contemporary philosophy}}

====Analytic philosophy====
{{see also|Physicalism|Scientific materialism}}
Contemporary [[analytic philosopher]]s (e.g. [[Daniel Dennett]], [[Willard Van Orman Quine]], [[Donald Davidson (philosopher)|Donald Davidson]], and [[Jerry Fodor]]) operate within a broadly physicalist or [[scientific materialist]] framework, producing rival accounts of how best to accommodate the [[mind]], including [[functionalism (philosophy of mind)|functionalism]], [[anomalous monism]], and [[identity theory of mind|identity theory]].<ref name="StandfordEM">Ramsey, William. [2003] 2019. "[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/#SpeProFolPsy Eliminative Materialism § Specific Problems With Folk Psychology]" (rev.). ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref>

Scientific materialism is often synonymous with, and has typically been described as, a [[reductive materialism]]. In the early 21st century, [[Paul Churchland|Paul]] and [[Patricia Churchland]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Churchland |first1=P. S. |title=Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind/Brain |date=1986 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Churchland |first1=P. M. |title=Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes |journal=Journal of Philosophy |date=1981 |volume=78 |pages=67–90}}</ref> advocated a radically contrasting position (at least in regard to certain hypotheses): [[eliminative materialism]]. Eliminative materialism holds that some mental phenomena simply do not exist at all, and that talk of such phenomena reflects a spurious "[[folk psychology]]" and [[introspection illusion]]. A materialist of this variety might believe that a concept like "belief" has no basis in fact (e.g. the way folk science speaks of demon-caused illnesses).

With reductive materialism at one end of a continuum (our theories will ''reduce'' to facts) and eliminative materialism at the other (certain theories will need to be ''eliminated'' in light of new facts), [[revisionary materialism]] is somewhere in the middle.<ref name="StandfordEM" />

====Continental philosophy====
{{see also|New materialism|Speculative materialism|Transcendental materialism}}
Contemporary [[continental philosopher]] [[Gilles Deleuze]] has attempted to rework and strengthen classical materialist ideas.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2015/entries/deleuze/ |title=Gilles Deleuze |last1=Smith |first1=Daniel |last2=Protevi |first2=John |date=1 January 2015 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Winter 2015}}</ref> Contemporary theorists such as [[Manuel DeLanda]], working with this reinvigorated materialism, have come to be classified as ''new materialists''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dolphijn |first1=Rick |last2=Tuin |first2=Iris van der |date=1 January 2013 |title=New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies |publisher=Open Humanities Press |isbn=9781607852810 |url=http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/new-materialism/ |language=EN}}</ref> [[New materialism]] has become its own subfield, with courses on it at major universities, as well as numerous conferences, edited collections and monographs devoted to it.

[[Jane Bennett (political theorist)|Jane Bennett]]'s 2010 book ''Vibrant Matter'' has been particularly instrumental in bringing theories of monist ontology and [[vitalism]] back into a critical theoretical fold dominated by [[poststructuralist]] theories of language and discourse.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcUcmAEACAAJ |title=Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things |last=Bennett |first=Jane |date=4 January 2010 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822346333 |language=en}}</ref> Scholars such as [[Mel Y. Chen]] and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson have critiqued this body of new materialist literature for neglecting to consider the materiality of race and gender in particular.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/6169668|title=Animal: New Directions in the Theorization of Race and Posthumanism|website=www.academia.edu|access-date=2016-05-08}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y793tgAACAAJ |title=Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect |last=Chen |first=Mel Y. |date=10 July 2012 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=9780822352549 |language=en}}</ref>

Métis scholar [[Zoe Todd]], as well as [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] (Bear Clan, Six Nations) and [[Anishinaabe]] scholar Vanessa Watts,<ref>{{cite web|title=Dr. Vanessa Watts|url=http://miri.mcmaster.ca/team/dr-vanessa-watts/|date=2018-12-12|website=McMaster Indigenous Research Institute|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-09}}</ref> query the colonial orientation of the race for a "new" materialism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Todd|first=Zoe|date=2016|title=An Indigenous Feminist's Take On The Ontological Turn: 'Ontology' Is Just Another Word For Colonialism|journal=Journal of Historical Sociology|language=en|volume=29|issue=1|pages=4–22|doi=10.1111/johs.12124|issn=1467-6443}}</ref> Watts in particular describes the tendency to regard matter as a subject of feminist or philosophical care as a tendency too invested in the reanimation of a [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] tradition of inquiry at the expense of an Indigenous ethic of responsibility.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watts|first=Vanessa|date=2013-05-04|title=Indigenous Place-Thought and Agency Amongst Humans and Non Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go On a European World Tour!)|url=https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/19145|journal=Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society|language=en|volume=2|issue=1|issn=1929-8692}}</ref> Other scholars, such as Helene Vosters, echo their concerns and have questioned whether there is anything particularly "new" about "new materialism", as Indigenous and other [[Animism|animist]] ontologies have attested to what might be called the "vibrancy of matter" for centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MEJvBAAAQBAJ |title=Performing Objects and Theatrical Things |last1=Schweitzer |first1=M. |last2=Zerdy |first2=J. |date=14 August 2014 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781137402455 |language=en}}</ref> Others, such as [[Thomas Nail]], have critiqued "vitalist" versions of new materialism for depoliticizing "flat ontology" and being ahistorical.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Being and motion|last=Nail, Thomas|isbn=978-0-19-090890-4|location=New York, NY|pages=11–54|oclc=1040086073|date = 10 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gamble|first1=Christopher N.|last2=Hanan|first2=Joshua S.|last3=Nail|first3=Thomas|date=2019-11-02|journal=[[Angelaki]]|volume=24|issue=6|pages=111–134|doi=10.1080/0969725x.2019.1684704|issn=0969-725X|title=What is New Materialism?|s2cid=214428135}}</ref>

[[Quentin Meillassoux]] proposed ''speculative materialism'', a [[post-Kantian]] return to [[David Hume]] also based on materialist ideas.<ref>[[Quentin Meillassoux|Meillassoux, Quentin]]. 2008. ''After Finitude''. Bloomsbury, p. 90.</ref>

==Defining "matter"==
The nature and definition of ''matter''—like other key concepts in science and philosophy—have occasioned much debate:<ref>{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Matter}}</ref>

* Is there a single kind of matter (''[[hyle]]'') that everything is made of, or are there multiple kinds?
* Is matter a continuous substance capable of expressing multiple forms (''[[hylomorphism]]'')<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9041771 "Hylomorphism"] ''Concise Britannica''</ref> or a number of discrete, unchanging constituents ([[atomism]])?<ref>[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-21 "Atomism: Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909182942/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-21 |date=9 September 2006 }} ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''<br />[https://web.archive.org/web/20050305082323/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-22 "Atomism in the Seventeenth Century"] ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''
<br />[http://people.umass.edu/schaffer/papers/Fundamental.pdf Article by a philosopher who opposes atomism]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061221163403/http://people.umass.edu/schaffer/papers/Fundamental.pdf |date=21 December 2006 }}
<br />[http://www.abstractatom.com/buddhist_atomism_and_the_r_theory_of_time.htm Information on Buddhist atomism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216202614/http://www.abstractatom.com/buddhist_atomism_and_the_r_theory_of_time.htm |date=16 February 2007 }}
<br />[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democritus/ Article on traditional Greek atomism]
<br />[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-modern/ "Atomism from the 17th to the 20th Century"] ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''</ref>
* Does matter have intrinsic properties (''[[substance theory]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance/ |title=''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' on substance theory |publisher=Plato.stanford.edu |access-date=2013-06-24}}</ref> or lack them (''[[prima materia]]'')?

One challenge to the conventional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of [[field physics]] in the 19th century. [[Special relativity|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. In contrast, 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.<ref>{{Cite arXiv |title=Cornell University | eprint=2211.14636 | author1=José Ignacio Illana | author2=Alejandro Jiménez Cano | date=2022 | class=hep-ph }}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

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" the Standard Model describes, and most of the universe is composed of [[dark matter]] and [[dark energy]], with little agreement among scientists about what these are made of.<ref>Bernard Sadoulet "Particle Dark Matter in the Universe: At the Brink of Discovery?" ''Science'' 5 January 2007: Vol. 315. no. 5808, pp. 61 - 63</ref>

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. [[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."<ref>Heisenberg, Werner. 1962. ''Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science''.</ref>

The concept of matter has changed in response to new scientific discoveries. Thus materialism has no definite content independent of the particular theory of matter on which it is based. According to [[Noam Chomsky]], any [[property (philosophy)|property]] can be considered material, if one defines matter such that it has that property.<ref name="Chomsky, Noam 2000">[[Chomsky, Noam]]. 2000. ''New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind''</ref>

The [[Gustavo Bueno#Philosophical Materialism|philosophical materialist]] [[Gustavo Bueno]] uses a more precise term than ''matter'', the ''stroma.''<ref>{{Citation|title=Gustavo Bueno, Estroma| date=22 May 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiY1rfMk2T0|language=en|access-date=2021-12-28}}</ref>

In [[Materialism and Empirio-criticism|''Materialism and Empirio-Criticism'']], Lenin argues that the truth of [[dialectical materialism]] is unrelated to any particular understanding of matter. To him, such changes actually confirm the dialectical form of materialism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |title=Materialism and Empirio-Criticism |publisher=International Publishers |year=1927 |isbn=9780717802777 |location=New York |publication-date=2022 |pages=265–272 |language=English}}</ref>

==Physicalism==
{{main|Physicalism}}
George Stack distinguishes between materialism and physicalism: {{blockquote|text=In the twentieth century, physicalism has emerged out of positivism. Physicalism restricts meaningful statements to physical bodies or processes that are verifiable or in principle verifiable. It is an empirical hypothesis that is subject to revision and, hence, lacks the dogmatic stance of classical materialism. [[Herbert Feigl]] defended physicalism in the United States and consistently held that mental states are brain states and that mental terms have the same referent as physical terms. The twentieth century has witnessed many materialist theories of the mental, and much debate surrounding them.<ref name="Craig1998">{{Citation |first=George J. |last=Stack |editor-first=E. |editor-last=Craig |year=1998 |title=Materialism |encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Luther to Nifo |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-18714-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3UBxqkkCX8C&pg=PA171 |pages=171–172 |issue=v. 6}}</ref>}}

But not all conceptions of physicalism are tied to verificationist theories of meaning or direct realist accounts of perception. Rather, physicalists believe that no "element of reality" is missing from the mathematical formalism of our best description of the world. "Materialist" physicalists also believe that the formalism describes fields of insentience. In other words, the intrinsic nature of the physical is non-experiential.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

==Religious and spiritual views==
===Christianity===
{{main|Materialism and Christianity}}
<!--cut and paste to the above-->

===Hinduism and [[Transcendental Club]]===
{{see also-text|[[Vaisheshika]]}}
{{expand section|date=November 2022}}
Most [[Hinduism|Hindus]] and [[transcendentalism|transcendentalists]] regard all matter as an illusion, or [[Maya (illusion)|''maya'']], blinding humans from the truth. Transcendental experiences like the perception of [[Brahman]] are considered to destroy the illusion.<ref name="Maya">[http://www.mahavidya.ca/2015/06/25/maya-the-concept-of-illusion/ mahavidya.ca]</ref>

==Criticism and alternatives==

===From contemporary physicists===
[[Rudolf Peierls]], a physicist who played a major role in the [[Manhattan Project]], rejected materialism: "The premise that you can describe in terms of physics the whole function of a human being{{nbsp}}... including knowledge and consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/vedanta/matter-undermined/articleshow/17055344.cms|website=The Economic Times|date=2 November 2012|access-date=21 June 2019|title=Matter Undermined}}</ref>

[[Erwin Schrödinger]] said, "Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else."<ref>"General Scientific and Popular Papers." In ''Collected Papers'', Vol. 4. Vienna: [[Austrian Academy of Sciences]]. Braunschweig/Wiesbaden: Vieweg & Sohn. p. 334.</ref>

[[Werner Heisenberg]] wrote: "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{{nbsp}}... Atoms are not things."<ref>Heisenberg, Werner. 1962. ''Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science''</ref>

====Quantum mechanics====
Some 20th-century physicists (e.g., [[Eugene Wigner]]<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFboCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA252 |title = Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses|isbn = 9783642783746|last1 = Wigner|first1 = Eugene Paul|date = 6 December 2012| publisher=Springer }}</ref> and [[Henry Stapp]]),<ref>[[Henry Stapp|Stapp, Henry]]. "Quantum interactive dualism - an alternative to materialism." ''[[Journal of Consciousness Studies]]''</ref> and some modern physicists and science writers (e.g., [[Stephen Barr]],<ref>{{cite web|author=John Farrell |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfarrell/2017/01/29/a-physicist-talks-god-and-the-quantum/ |title=A Physicist Talks God And The Quantum |work=Forbes.com |date= |accessdate=2022-03-17}}</ref> [[Paul Davies]], and [[John Gribbin]]) have argued that materialism is flawed due to certain recent findings in physics, such as [[quantum mechanics]] and [[chaos theory]]. According to Gribbin and Davies (1991):

{{blockquote|text=Then came our Quantum theory, which totally transformed our image of matter. The old assumption that the microscopic world of atoms was simply a scaled-down version of the everyday world had to be abandoned. Newton's deterministic machine was replaced by a shadowy and paradoxical conjunction of waves and particles, governed by the laws of chance, rather than the rigid rules of causality. An extension of the quantum theory goes beyond even this; it paints a picture in which solid matter dissolves away, to be replaced by weird excitations and vibrations of invisible field energy.

Quantum physics undermines materialism because it reveals that matter has far less "substance" than we might believe. But another development goes even further by demolishing Newton's image of matter as inert lumps. This development is the theory of chaos, which has recently gained widespread attention.|author=Paul Davies and John Gribbin|title=''The Matter Myth''|source=Chapter 1: "The Death of Materialism"}}

====Digital physics====
The objections of Davies and Gribbin are shared by proponents of [[digital physics]], who view information rather than matter as fundamental. The physicist and proponent of digital physics [[John Archibald Wheeler]] wrote, "all matter and all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and this is a participatory universe."<ref>[[Wojciech H. Zurek|Zurek, Wojciech H.]], ed. 1990. "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links." In ''Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information''.</ref> Some founders of quantum theory, such as [[Max Planck]], shared their objections. He wrote:

{{blockquote|text=As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.|author=Max Planck|source=''Das Wesen der Materie'' (1944)}}

[[James Jeans]] concurred with Planck, saying, "The Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter."<ref>Jeans, James. 1937. ''[[The Mysterious Universe]]''. p. 137.</ref>

===Philosophical objections===
In the ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'', [[Immanuel Kant]] argued against materialism in defending his [[transcendental idealism]] (as well as offering arguments against [[subjective idealism]] and [[mind–body dualism]]).<ref>Kant, Immanuel. "The refutation of idealism." pp. 345–52 in ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' (1st ed.), edited by [[Norman Kemp Smith|N. K. Smith]]. (2nd ed., pp. 244–7).</ref><ref>Kant, Immanuel. "The refutation of idealism." pp. 345–52 in ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' (1st ed.), edited by [[Norman Kemp Smith|N. K. Smith]]. A379, p. 352: "If, however, as commonly happens, we seek to extend the concept of dualism, and take it in the transcendental sense, neither it nor the two counter-alternatives — pneumatism [idealism] on the one hand, materialism on the other — would have any sort of basis. … Neither the transcendental object which underlies outer appearances nor that which underlies inner intuition, is in itself either matter or a thinking being, but a ground (to us unknown)…"</ref> But Kant argues that change and time require an enduring substrate.<ref>[http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/DB047SECT7 ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'']. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206102552/http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/DB047SECT7|date=6 February 2007}}: "Kant argues that we can determine that there has been a change in the objects of our perception, not merely a change in our perceptions themselves, only by conceiving of what we perceive as successive states of enduring substances (see Substance)."</ref><ref>Kant, Immanuel. "The refutation of idealism." pp. 345–52 in ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' (1st ed.), edited by [[Norman Kemp Smith|N. K. Smith]]. B274, p. 245:

"All determination of time presupposes something permanent in perception. This permanent cannot, however, be something in me…"</ref>

[[Postmodern]]/[[poststructuralist]] thinkers also express skepticism about any all-encompassing metaphysical scheme. Philosopher [[Mary Midgley]]<ref>[[Mary Midgley|Midgley, Mary]]. 1990. ''The Myths We Live By''.</ref> argues that materialism is a [[self-refuting idea]], at least in its [[Eliminative materialism|eliminative materialist]] form.<ref>Baker, L. 1987. ''Saving Belief''. Princeton: Princeton University Press</ref><ref>Reppert, V. 1992. "Eliminative Materialism, Cognitive Suicide, and Begging the Question." ''[[Metaphilosophy (journal)|Metaphilosophy]]'' 23:378–92.</ref><ref>Seidner, Stanley S. 10 June 2009. "A Trojan Horse: Logotherapeutic Transcendence and its Secular Implications for Theology." [[Mater Dei Institute of Education|Mater Dei Institute]]. p. 5.</ref><ref>[[Peter Boghossian|Boghossian, Peter]]. 1990. "The Status of Content." ''[[The Philosophical Review|Philosophical Review]]'' 99:157–84; and 1991. "The Status of Content Revisited." ''[[Pacific Philosophical Quarterly]]'' 71:264–78.</ref>

====Varieties of idealism====
Arguments for [[idealism]], such as those of [[Hegel]] and [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]], often take the form of an argument against materialism; indeed, Berkeley's idealism was called ''[[immaterialism]]''. Now, matter can be argued to be redundant, as in [[bundle theory]], and mind-independent properties can, in turn, be reduced to subjective [[percept]]s. Berkeley gives 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, matter's existence can only be inferred from the apparent (perceived) stability of perceptions; it finds absolutely no evidence in direct experience.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Having an Idea of Matter: A Peircean Refutation of Berkeleyan Immaterialism|last=de Waal|first=Cornelis|author-link=Cornelis de Waal|journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]|date=April 2006|volume=67|issue=2|pages=292–293, 302–303|jstor=30141879}}</ref>

If matter and energy are seen as necessary to explain the physical world, but incapable of explaining mind, [[dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]] results. [[Emergence]], [[holism]] and [[process philosophy]] seek to ameliorate the perceived shortcomings of traditional (especially [[mechanism (philosophy)|mechanistic]]) materialism without abandoning materialism entirely.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

===Materialism as methodology===
Some critics object to materialism as part of an overly skeptical, narrow or [[reductionism|reductivist]] approach to theorizing, rather than to the ontological claim that matter is the only substance. [[particle physics|Particle physicist]] and Anglican [[theology|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.<ref>However, critics of materialism are equally guilty of prognosticating that it will ''never'' be able to explain certain phenomena. "Over a hundred years ago [[William James]] saw clearly that science would never resolve the [[mind-body dichotomy|mind-body problem]]." [http://www.designinference.com/documents/1999.10.spiritual_machines.htm ''Are We Spiritual Machines?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111064335/http://www.designinference.com/documents/1999.10.spiritual_machines.htm |date=11 November 2013 }} Dembski, W.</ref> Polkinghorne prefers "[[dual-aspect monism]]" to materialism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crosscurrents.org/polkinghorne.htm |title=Interview with John Polkinghorne |publisher=Crosscurrents.org |access-date=2013-06-24}}</ref>

Some scientific materialists have been criticized for failing to provide clear definitions of matter, leaving the term ''materialism'' without any definite meaning. [[Noam Chomsky]] states that since the concept of matter may be affected by new scientific discoveries, as has happened in the past, scientific materialists are being dogmatic in assuming the opposite.<ref name="Chomsky, Noam 2000" />

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=25em}}
* [[Aleatory materialism]]
* [[Antimaterialism (disambiguation)|Antimaterialism]] beliefs:
**[[Gnosticism]]
**[[Idealism]]
**[[Immaterialism]]
**[[Maya (religion)]]
**[[Mind–body dualism]]
**[[Platonic realism]]
**[[Supernaturalism]]
**[[Transcendentalism]]
* [[Cārvāka]]
* [[Christian materialism]]
* [[Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)|Critical realism]]
* [[Cultural materialism (anthropology)|Cultural materialism]]
* [[Dialectical materialism]]
* [[Economic materialism]]
* [[Existence]]
* [[French materialism]]
* [[Grotesque body]]
* [[Historical materialism]]
* [[Hyle]]
* [[Incorporeality]]
* [[Madhyamaka]], a philosophy of [[Middle Way]]
* [[Marxist philosophy of nature]]
* [[Materialist feminism]]
* [[Metaphysical naturalism]]
* [[Model-dependent realism]]
* [[Naturalism (philosophy)]]
* [[Gustavo Bueno#Philosophical materialism|Philosophical materialism]]
* [[Philosophy of mind]]
* [[Physicalism]]
* [[Postmaterialism]]
* [[Quantum energy]]
* [[Rational egoism]]
* [[Reality in Buddhism]]
* [[Scientistic materialism]]
* [[Substance theory]]
* [[Transcendence (religion)]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{refbegin}}
'''a.''' {{note label|a|a|none}} Indeed, it has been noted it is difficult if not impossible to define one category without contrasting it with the other.<ref name="Priest1991">{{cite book|last=Priest|first=Stephen|title=Theories of the Mind|year=1991|place=London|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]}}. {{ISBN|0-14-013069-1|978-0-14-013069-0}}.</ref><ref name=Novack1979>{{cite book |last=Novack |first=George |year=1979 |author-link=George Novack |title=The Origins of Materialism |place=New York |publisher=Pathfinder Press |isbn=0-87348-022-8}}</ref>
{{refend}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* Buchner, L. (1920). ''Force and Matter''. New York, Peter Eckler Publishing Co.
* Churchland, Paul (1981). ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2025900 Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes]''. The Philosophy of Science. Boyd, Richard; P. Gasper; J. D. Trout. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.
* {{Citation |author-link=Hartry Field |chapter=Mental representation |first=Hartry H. |last=Field |title=Readings in Philosophy of Psychology |volume=2 |editor1-first=Ned Joel |editor1-last=Block |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1981 |isbn=9780416746006}}
* {{cite book |last=Flanagan |first=Owen J. |title=Science of the Mind 2e |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80HIwMz3bvwC |access-date=19 December 2012 |year=1991 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-56056-6}}
* Fodor, J.A. (1974). "Special Sciences", ''Synthese'', Vol. 28.
* Gunasekara, Victor A. (2001). "[http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/buddha/Teachings/basicteaching11.htm Buddhism and the Modern World]". ''Basic Buddhism: A Modern Introduction to the Buddha's Teaching". 18 January 2008
* Kim, J. (1994) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2107741 Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction], ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', Vol. 52. 
* [[Julien Offray de La Mettrie|La Mettrie, La Mettrie, Julien Offray de]] (1748). ''L'Homme Machine'' (''[[Man a Machine]]'')
* Lange, Friedrich A. (1925) ''[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/703434926 The History of Materialism]''. New York, Harcourt, Brace, & Co.
* {{cite book |last1=Moser |first1=Paul K. |last2=Trout |first2=J. D. |title=Contemporary Materialism: A Reader |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vIzCvCAxpgC |access-date=19 December 2012 |year=1995 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-10863-8}}
* {{citation |last=Priest |first=Stephen |year=1991 |title=Theories of the Mind |place=London |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=0-14-013069-1}} Alternative {{ISBN|978-0-14-013069-0}}
* Schopenhauer, Arthur (1969). ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]''. New York, Dover Publications, Inc.
* Seidner, Stanley S. (10 June 2009). [https://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:FrKYAo88ckkJ:www.materdei.ie/media/conferences/a-secular-age-parallel-sessions-timetable.pdf+%22Stan+Seidner%22&hl=en&gl=us "A Trojan Horse: Logotherapeutic Transcendence and its Secular Implications for Theology"]. ''Mater Dei Institute''
* {{cite journal |last=Turner |first=MS |title=Quarks and the Cosmos |journal=Science |date=5 January 2007 |volume=315 |issue=5808 |pages=59–61 |pmid=17204637 |doi=10.1126/science.1136276|bibcode=2007Sci...315...59T |s2cid=30977763 }}
* Vitzthum, Richard C. (1995) ''[https://books.google.com/books/about/Materialism.html?id=odjWAAAAMAAJ Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition]''. Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|commonscat=yes|n=no}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Materialism |volume=17 |short=x}}
*''[[Stanford Encyclopedia]]'':
**[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/ Physicalism]
**[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/ Eliminative Materialism]
*[https://infidels.org/library/modern/richard-vitzthum-materialism/ Philosophical Materialism (by Richard C. Vitzthum)] from infidels.org
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140703140228/https://sites.google.com/site/minddict/materialism Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind on Materialism] from the [[University of Waterloo]]
*[http://sresearch.scienceontheweb.net/philosophy.php A new theory of ideomaterialism being a synthesis of idealism and materialism]

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