Materialism

From Geography

Materialism is a philosophical position, which returns all processes and phenomena in the world to matter and its laws and conditions. The only thing that exists is matter. All things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions. In other words materialism claims that the nature, constitution and structure of reality are physical. The history of materialism as a keyword in Western philosophy can be traced back to the Early Atomists in Greek thought, particularly Democritus, and thereon in the writings of Epicurus and Lucretius (Gregory, Johnston, Pratt, Watts & Whatmore, 2009, p. 449).

Materialism is typically contrasted to various forms of spiritualism or otherworldly existence (such as belief in God or supernatural beings), or to idealism.

References

Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M. & Whatmore, S. (2009). The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th edition. London: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

Published by Jens Lübben