Materialism is a philosophical current that affirms that matter is the origin of the universe and that consciousness and ideas are given from matter.
Materialism maintains that matter is primordial and that it
exists, although human beings cannot understand or interpret it. Thus, as a
current of thought, it is frontally opposed to idealism are the two great
ways of understanding the world.
Idealism defends that consciousness comes before nature, and the
latter is reflected in our ideas and thoughts. For materialism, it is the other
way around.
The materialist current emerged to explain the conflict between
being and knowledge. Being, in philosophy, is matter, objective reality.
Materialists are clear about it, matter exists, even if we don’t interpret it,
even if we don’t understand it. It is our job, through science and research, to solve their puzzles. Nature exists outside of ideas and human consciousness.
Origin of Materialism
Materialism, like other currents, has been deeply revised,
interpreted, and applied to a large number of disciplines.
There are different times in which this has been developed, the
first dates back to Ancient Greece. Democritus and Epicurus were the first
materialistic thinkers. One of his main contributions was the atomistic view of
the world. This considered that the universe was composed of innumerable
particles of an invisible size that made up the smallest unit and that erected
everything we know.
Another episode of the rise of materialism was in the
Renaissance, with the so-called mechanistic materialism. This divided learning
and knowledge into very delimited areas, such as physics, chemistry, etc. Thus,
it was considered that the processes and changes in nature evolved mechanically
in each of these areas, not as if it were a whole.
It is then that we arrive at the materialism of Marx Y Engels.
Marxism applied materialist principles to social phenomena, something that was
previously only reduced to metaphysics and natural phenomena. For Marx, the
confrontations and constant tensions are what determine the reality and the
evolution of the world. And this, in turn, is what determines the human being,
not the consciousness of the person himself.
Characteristics of Materialism
Materialism has a number of characteristics that give it
substance:
- It has its origin in Democritus
and Epicurus, thinkers of Ancient Greece.
- He opposes idealism as a current
to interpret the world and its phenomena.
- Being is prior to consciousness.
- Man must discover nature through
science.
- He is an atheist, he does not
conceive of a creative being of nature and of man.
- It opposes the idealistic
foundation of the existence of innate ideas.
- prefer the empiricism in front of rationalism.
Types of
More than types of materialism, they are those areas in which
materialism is applied as a method of study or interpretation.
Professor Alberto Hidalgo makes the following categorization:
- cosmological materialism: Matter is the
origin of the universe and the foundation of all reality. The matter is not
“moved” by a superior being, but rather obeys its own laws and elements
that constitute it.
- anthropological
materialism:
Make the distinction between soul and body. Explains that human nature
obeys physical and physiological phenomena.
- historical materialism: The material conditions of existence are the basis on which the superstructure. That is, working conditions, techniques, and production all determine how the set of the society.
0 Comments