5 most important philosophical MATERIALISM characteristics

In a Teacher's lesson we are going to talk about the characteristics philosophical materialism more important, as his concept of reality, his idea about religion, his theses about knowledge or about history.

Materialism is a philosophical current that defends that the principle of everything is matter (science) and that is characterized by being one of the longest-lived in history, since it sinks its roots in the Ancient Greece and extends practically to the present day with authors such as Tales of Miletus, Aristotle, Friederich Engels or Karl Mark.

If you want to know more about materialism, keep reading this article by a PROFESSOR because we explain everything to you.

The term materialism It is composed of two words that have their origin in ancient Greek and that means the doctrine of the matter.

Likewise, his birth must be located in Ancient Greece with philosophers such as Thales of Miletus (624-547 BC) C.), Anaximander (610-546 BC) C.), Democritus (460-370 BC) C) or Aristotle (384-322). Highlighting the latter with his theory of the dual universe, according to which everything is made up

of matter, essence and substance.

types of materialism

Later, materialism branched out:

• historical materialism
• dialectical materialism

and has had great reps, such as: Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Thomas Hobbes (1580-1679), Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872), Friederich Engels (1818-1883) or Karl Marx (1820-1895 ).

In this way, materialism stands as the philosophical current that defends that matter is the origin of everything, that is to say, that things and reality exist because they have matter and, therefore, they exist without the need to be created or perceived.

Now that you know its definition, we are going to get into the matter and we are going to know what the characteristics of philosophical materialism are. Here we analyze them.

1. The importance of matter

One of the main characteristics of philosophical materialism is that it defends that matter is the beginning of everything. Objects and things are made up of matter and exist without the need to be perceived, likewise, it affirms that without matter nothing exists.

In this sense, the theory of Aristotle, according to, everything that exists is composed of ten elements fundamentally divided into two groups:

• the substance: The authentic being, which exists by itself and is made up of matter and form (indissoluble). Thus, for example, the human being is made up of matter/body and form/soul = vital principle (theory of soul/natural philosophy: the human being is made up of three souls: the nourishing, the sensitive and rational).
• The accidents: They are elements that change, such as: time, place, position, action, situation, passion or quality.

2. The concept of reality

Materialism tells us of the existence of two types of realities: subjective and objective. The first is the reality in which our thought resides and the second is the world around us, the first being subject to the second. Therefore, existence lies in that which is perceivable or knowable (The matter).

Ultimately, it defends tangibility of things or of a matter that we can see and touch. That which can be known and can exist outside of consciousness

3. religion and science

Materialism rejects the idea of ​​the metaphysical world and the intangible, that is, it collides directly with religion for being something that is not material. In this way, materialism relies more on scientific/rational thinking and in studying what a subject has and that can be tested or known.

Thus, this idea of ​​religion will evolve with the theories of different authors, such as:

• g. Bruno: defend pantheism and, therefore, the idea that the deity, nature and the universe are the same or equivalent. That is, there is no specific belief in the divine entity called God.
• L. Feuerbach: Develop the concept of alignment and he uses it to explain religion: How man renounces his own being / nature to create a being in which everything that cannot be is projected, that is, man alienates himself in God. So God is a product created that ends up dominating its creator or producer (man):“It is not God who creates man, but man creates God."
• K. Marx: He affirms that God does not exist, that it is an invention of the human being with the aim of explaining what is inexplicable and that it is used to legitimize our fears, concerns and ignorance.

4. philosophy and knowledge

Another characteristic of philosophical materialism is related to philosophy and knowledge. From materialism it is defended that philosophy starts from logic/research. Thus, Aristotle will tell us that it is based on understanding how things work through observation, practice and reasoning. All this through the principles of validity/valid reasoning and invalidity/invalid reasoning.

Following this line, centuries later, Marx will defend the philosophy of praxis (action/practice), according to, we must put aside speculation and walk towards practice, which is what gives us knowledge. Thus, praxis is considered as a practice of life through which theories, interpretive frameworks and knowledge are generated.

5. The history

Within the concept of history, from materialism stand out the postulates of Marx. Whoever establishes that the world is a reality with a subjective matter linked to a history, that is to say, that for Marx the fact that everything starts from a matter is not important, but what influences the history, material conditions (what determines society: what we produce, technology, the economy...).

Therefore, to understand the world we must understand the materiality of relationships economics, technology… of our society. Hence, he tells us that philosophers have always tried to interpret the different ways of the world, but that what it really is about is understanding and transforming it.

These are the main characteristics of philosophical materialism, now you will be able to better understand what this current consists of.