Monism attributes oneness or singleness ( Greek : μόνος ) to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
122-537: Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature , and that all things, including 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
244-609: A broadly physicalist or scientific materialist framework, producing rival accounts of how best to accommodate the mind , including functionalism , anomalous monism , and identity theory . Scientific materialism is often synonymous with, and has typically been described as, a reductive materialism . In the early 21st century, Paul and Patricia Churchland 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
366-684: A conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter. 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." 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 ). But Kant argues that change and time require an enduring substrate. Monism There are two sorts of definitions for monism: Although
488-405: A critical theoretical fold dominated by poststructuralist theories of language and discourse. 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. Métis scholar Zoe Todd , as well as Mohawk (Bear Clan, Six Nations) and Anishinaabe scholar Vanessa Watts, query
610-410: A day like this and you're really grateful. I don't know who to." This understanding also links with Midgley's argument that the concept of Gaia has "both a scientific and a religious aspect." She argued that people find this hard to grasp because our views on both science and religion have been narrowed so much that the connections between them are now obscured. This is not, however, about belief in
732-469: A fellow academic". The bad feeling between Dawkins and Midgley did not diminish. In a note to page 55 in the 2nd edition of The Selfish Gene (1989), Dawkins refers to her "highly intemperate and vicious paper". Midgley continued to oppose Dawkins' ideas. In her books Evolution as a Religion (2002) and The Myths We Live By (2003), she wrote about what she saw as his confused use of language — using terms such as "selfish" in different ways without alerting
854-405: A form of absolute nondualism . Material monism can be traced back to the pre-Socratic philosophers who sought to understand the arche or basic principle of the universe in terms of different material causes. These included Thales , who argued that the basis of everything was water, Anaximenes , who claimed it was air, and Heraclitus who believed it to be fire. Later, Parmenides described
976-418: A gratuitous, semi-mystical fantasy", but instead is "a useful idea, a cure for distortions that spoil our current world-view." It is useful both in finding practical solutions to environmental problems and also in giving us "a more realistic view of ourselves". Gaia has, Midgley argued, both scientific and moral importance, which also involves politics. There is also a religious angle to Gaia. Beast and Man
1098-409: A job in the philosophy department at Newcastle, where she and her husband were both "much loved". Midgley taught there between 1962 and 1980. During her time at Newcastle, she began studying ethology and this led to her first book, Beast and Man (1978), published when she was 59. "I wrote no books until I was a good 50, and I'm jolly glad because I didn't know what I thought before then." Midgley
1220-566: A kind of animal. Several of her books and articles discussed philosophical ideas appearing in popular science , including those of Richard Dawkins . She also wrote in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis . The Guardian described her as a fiercely combative philosopher and the UK's "foremost scourge of 'scientific pretension '". Midgley was born in London to Lesley and Tom Scrutton. Her father,
1342-408: 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
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#17328523755331464-648: A monist ontology, instead espousing the ontological separation of matter and space (i.e. that space is "another kind" of being). Wang Chong (27 – c. 100 AD) was a Chinese thinker of the early Common Era said to be a materialist. Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta (6th century) in his work Tattvopaplavasimha ( The Upsetting of All Principles ) refuted the Nyāya Sūtra epistemology. The materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400; when Madhavacharya compiled Sarva-darśana-samgraha ( A Digest of All Philosophies ) in
1586-522: A month because of the worsening political situation . At Somerville she studied Mods and Greats alongside Iris Murdoch , graduating with a first-class honours degree. Several of her lasting friendships that began at Oxford were with scientists, and she credited them with having educated her in a number of scientific disciplines. After a split in the Labour club at Oxford over the Soviet Union's actions, she
1708-440: A more holistic understanding of the world. Instead, Midgley argued that we "must learn how to value various aspects of our environment, how to structure social relationships and institutions so that we value social and spiritual life, as well as the natural world, alongside commercial and economic aspects. Her book Science and Poetry , also published in 2001, also includes a discussion on the idea of Gaia, which she argued "is not
1830-481: A new ... assumption ... it is becoming aware of something we are doing already." She suggested that "this topic is essentially the one which caused Einstein often to remark that the really surprising thing about science is that it works at all ... the simple observation that the laws of thought turn out to be the laws of things." Midgley wrote her 2014 book, Are you an illusion? as a response to Francis Crick 's argument in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis that
1952-424: A new turn in materialism in his 1841 book The Essence of Christianity , which presented a humanist account of religion as the outward projection of man's inward nature. Feuerbach introduced anthropological materialism , a version of materialism that views materialist anthropology as the universal science . Feuerbach's variety of materialism heavily influenced Karl Marx , who in the late 19th century elaborated
2074-566: A person's sense of personal identity and free will is no more than the behaviour of nerve cells. She attacks the understanding inherent in this argument that everything, including a sense of self, can be understood through its physical properties. Instead, she argues that there are different levels of explanation, which need to be studied using different methods. This means that thoughts and memories are an integral part of reality for both humans and animals and need to be studied as such. In 1978, J. L. Mackie published an article entitled The Law of
2196-403: A personal God, but instead about responding to the system of life, as revealed by Gaia, with "wonder, awe and gratitude" She observes that "practically all the great European philosophers have been bachelors", and argues that this may be responsible for the solipsism, skepticism, and individualism that dominate the tradition. Midgley was supportive of James Lovelock 's Gaia hypothesis . This
2318-461: A proto-mentality of elementary particles with his vitalist view, "there is life in all matter, throughout the vast extent of all the eternities; it is in the rock, the sand, the dust, in water, air, the gases, and in short, in every description and organization of matter; whether it be solid, liquid, or gaseous, particle operating with particle." Mary Midgley Mary Beatrice Midgley ( née Scrutton ; 13 September 1919 – 10 October 2018)
2440-446: 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
2562-408: A theological theme: the problem of evil." But, Midgley argues that we need to understand the human capacity for wickedness, rather than blaming God for it. Midgley argues that evil arises from aspects of human nature, not from an external force. She further argues that evil is the absence of good, with good being described as the positive virtues such as generosity, courage and kindness. Therefore, evil
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#17328523755332684-522: A view affords a central role to sympathy and is fundamentally opposed to a long-standing rival view, most clearly exemplified by the social contract tradition, which prioritizes an instrumental conception of rationality." Coetzee and Midgley additionally shared a longstanding fascination with Robinson Crusoe . Coetzee retells the Crusoe story in his novel Foe , while Midgley wrote about Crusoe in her essay "Duties Concerning Islands." Midgley's essay argued for
2806-401: A whole from above, so we peer in at it through a number of small windows ... We can eventually make quite a lot of sense of this habitat if we patiently put together the data from different angles. But if we insist that our own window is the only one worth looking through, we shall not get very far." She argued that, "acknowledging matter as somehow akin to and penetrated by mind is not adding
2928-844: Is "in" the cosmos. While pantheism asserts that 'All is God', panentheism claims that God animates all of the universe, and also transcends the universe. In addition, some forms indicate that the universe is contained within God, like in the Judaic concept of Tzimtzum . Much Hindu thought is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism. Paul Tillich has argued for such a concept within Christian theology, as has liberal biblical scholar Marcus Borg and mystical theologian Matthew Fox , an Episcopal priest. Pandeism or pan-deism (from Ancient Greek : πᾶν , romanized : pan , lit. 'all' and Latin : deus meaning " god " in
3050-463: Is a meditative exercise of withdrawal from the particular and identification with the universal, leading to contemplation of oneself as the most universal, namely, Consciousness. This approach is different from the classical Yoga of complete thought suppression. Vivekananda, according to Gavin Flood , was "a figure of great importance in the development of a modern Hindu self-understanding and in formulating
3172-521: Is a philosophy of materialism from classical antiquity that was a major forerunner of modern science. Though ostensibly a deist , Epicurus affirmed the literal existence of the Greek gods in either some type of celestial "heaven" cognate from which they ruled the universe (if not on a literal Mount Olympus), and his philosophy promulgated atomism , while Platonism taught roughly the opposite, despite Plato's teaching of Zeus as God . Materialism belongs to
3294-569: Is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else." 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 ... Atoms are not things." Some 20th-century physicists (e.g., Eugene Wigner and Henry Stapp ), and some modern physicists and science writers (e.g., Stephen Barr , Paul Davies , and John Gribbin ) have argued that materialism
3416-449: Is an incorporeal being that caused all other existence. According to Maimonides, to admit corporeality to God is tantamount to admitting complexity to God, which is a contradiction to God as the first cause and constitutes heresy . While Hasidic mystics considered the existence of the physical world a contradiction to God's simpleness , Maimonides saw no contradiction. According to Hasidic thought (particularly as propounded by
3538-646: Is anything particularly "new" about "new materialism", as Indigenous and other animist ontologies have attested to what might be called the "vibrancy of matter" for centuries. Others, such as Thomas Nail , have critiqued "vitalist" versions of new materialism for depoliticizing "flat ontology" and being ahistorical. Quentin Meillassoux proposed speculative materialism , a post-Kantian return to David Hume also based on materialist ideas. The nature and definition of matter —like other key concepts in science and philosophy—have occasioned much debate: One challenge to
3660-558: Is because God/Nature has all the possible attributes and no two substances can share an attribute, which means there can be no other substances than God/Nature. Monism has been discussed thoroughly in Indian philosophy and Vedanta throughout their history starting as early as the Rig Veda . The term monism was introduced in the 18th century by Christian von Wolff in his work Logic (1728), to designate types of philosophical thought in which
3782-597: Is better to study something that you otherwise wouldn't. Someone also told me that, if you did Classics at Oxford, you could do Philosophy as well. I knew very little about this but, as I had just found Plato, I couldn't resist trying it. Midgley took the Oxford entrance exam in the autumn of 1937, gaining a place at Somerville College . During the year before starting university, it was arranged that she would live in Austria for three months to learn German , but she had to leave after
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3904-518: Is concerned with the moral status of animals, a subject Midgley addressed in Animals and Why They Matter , and discusses at length the idea of sympathy as an ethical concept, a subject Midgley wrote about in Beast and Man . Andy Lamey wrote that the result of these and other similarities is that Coetzee's work "evoke[s] a particular conception of ethics, one very similar to that of the philosopher Mary Midgley. Such
4026-425: 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
4148-471: Is flawed due to certain recent findings in physics, such as quantum mechanics and chaos theory . According to Gribbin and Davies (1991): 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
4270-412: Is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another. Modern philosophical materialists extend the definition of other scientifically observable entities such as energy , forces , and the spacetime continuum ; some philosophers, such as Mary Midgley , suggest that the concept of "matter" is elusive and poorly defined. During the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels extended
4392-414: Is like plumbing , something that nobody notices until it goes wrong. "Then suddenly we become aware of some bad smells, and we have to take up the floorboards and look at the concepts of even the most ordinary piece of thinking. The great philosophers ... noticed how badly things were going wrong, and made suggestions about how they could be dealt with." Midgley argued that philosophy was not something that
4514-455: 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
4636-452: 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. Most Hindus and transcendentalists regard all matter as an illusion, or maya , blinding humans from the truth. Transcendental experiences like the perception of Brahman are considered to destroy
4758-453: Is not one with nature. Panentheism differentiates itself from pantheism , which holds that the divine is synonymous with the universe. In panentheism, there are two types of substance, "pan" the universe and God. The universe and the divine are not ontologically equivalent. God is viewed as the eternal animating force within the universe. In some forms of panentheism, the cosmos exists within God, who in turn " transcends ", "pervades" or
4880-410: Is often associated with 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
5002-535: Is one substance, called Universe, God or Nature. Panentheism , a slightly different concept (explained below). Some of the most famous pantheists are the Stoics , Giordano Bruno and Spinoza . Panentheism (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system that posits that the divine (be it a monotheistic God , polytheistic gods , or an eternal cosmic animating force) interpenetrates every part of nature, but
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5124-521: Is projecting a Thatcherite take on economics on to evolution. It's not an impartial scientific view; it's a political drama." In April 2009 Midgley reiterated her critical interpretation of The Selfish Gene as part of a series of articles on Hobbes in The Guardian . In her 2010 book The Solitary Self: Darwin and the Selfish Gene , she argues that "simple one-sided accounts of human motives, such as
5246-614: Is somewhere in the middle. Contemporary continental philosopher Gilles Deleuze has attempted to rework and strengthen classical materialist ideas. Contemporary theorists such as Manuel DeLanda , working with this reinvigorated materialism, have come to be classified as new materialists . 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 's 2010 book Vibrant Matter has been particularly instrumental in bringing theories of monist ontology and vitalism back into
5368-480: Is the absence of these characteristics, leading to selfishness, cowardice and similar. She therefore criticizes existentialism and other schools of thought which promote the 'Rational Will' as a free agent. She also criticizes the tendency to demonize those deemed 'wicked', by failing to acknowledge that they also display some measure of some of the virtues. Midgley also expressed her interest in Paul Davies ' ideas on
5490-569: Is the discernment of levels of truth, an emphasis on intuitive-experiential understanding of the Absolute such as jnana , bodhi and jianxing: (Chinese; 見性) , and the technology of yin and yang used within East Asian medicine with an emphasis on the integration of these levels of truth and its understanding. Vedanta is the inquiry into and systematisation of the Vedas and Upanishads, to harmonise
5612-401: 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 , physical energies and forces , and exotic matter ). Thus, some prefer
5734-460: Is the most common among Hindus today. This monism, according to Flood, is at the foundation of earlier Upanishads, to theosophy in the later Vedanta tradition and in modern Neo-Hinduism. According to the Pāli Canon , both pluralism ( nānatta ) and monism ( ekatta ) are speculative views . A Theravada commentary notes that the former is similar to or associated with nihilism ( ucchēdavāda ), and
5856-457: Is the sole and exclusive cause of evolution, making the world therefore, in some important sense, entirely random. This is itself a strange faith which ought not to be taken for granted as part of science. In an interview with The Independent in September 2007, she argued that Dawkins' views on evolution are ideologically driven: "The ideology Dawkins is selling is the worship of competition. It
5978-497: Is the theory of chaos, which has recently gained widespread attention. 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." Some founders of quantum theory, such as Max Planck , shared their objections. He wrote: As
6100-473: The identity thesis , a modern form of monism. Monism is also still relevant to the philosophy of mind , where various positions are defended. Different types of monism include: Views contrasting with monism are: Monism in modern philosophy of mind can be divided into three broad categories: Certain positions do not fit easily into the above categories, such as functionalism , anomalous monism , and reflexive monism . Moreover, they do not define
6222-565: The Axial Age ( c. 800–200 BC). In ancient Indian philosophy , materialism developed around 600 BC with the works of Ajita Kesakambali , Payasi , Kanada and the proponents of the Cārvāka school of philosophy. Kanada became one of the early proponents of atomism . The Nyaya – Vaisesika school (c. 600–100 BC) developed one of the earliest forms of atomism (although their proofs of God and their positing that consciousness
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#17328523755336344-567: The "selfish gene" tendency in recent neo-Darwinian thought, may be illuminating but are always unrealistic". Midgley is referred to in The Lives of Animals (1999), a work of fiction by the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee . The book has been likened to a cross between a short story and a philosophical dialogue, as Coetzee's protagonist, Elizabeth Costello, often speaks at length about philosophical ideas. Many reviewers expressed bafflement at
6466-436: The 14th century, he had no Cārvāka (or Lokāyata) text to quote from or refer to. In early 12th-century al-Andalus , Arabian philosopher Ibn Tufail ( a.k.a. Abubacer) discussed materialism in his philosophical novel , Hayy ibn Yaqdhan ( Philosophus Autodidactus ), while vaguely foreshadowing historical materialism . In France, Pierre Gassendi (1592–1665) represented the materialist tradition in opposition to
6588-504: The 18th century, early 19th-century founder of Chabad , Shneur Zalman of Liadi ), God is held to be immanent within creation for two interrelated reasons: The Vilna Gaon was very much against this philosophy, for he felt that it would lead to pantheism and heresy. According to some this is the main reason for the Gaon's ban on Chasidism. Christians maintain that God created the universe ex nihilo and not from his own substance, so that
6710-481: The Gaia Network, and became its first Chair. Their regular meetings on the implications of Gaia led to the 2007 book Earthy realism edited by Midgley, which sought to bring together the scientific and spiritual aspects of Gaia theory. Midgley's 2001 pamphlet for Demos Gaia: The next big idea argues for the importance of the idea of Gaia as a "powerful tool" in science, morality, psychology and politics, to gain
6832-514: The Jungle: Moral Alternatives and Principles of Evolution , praising Dawkins's The Selfish Gene , and discussing how its ideas might be applied to moral philosophy. Midgley responded in 1979 with "Gene-Juggling", arguing that The Selfish Gene was about psychological egoism , rather than evolution. In a 1981 rebuttal, Dawkins retorted that the comment was "hard to match, in reputable journals, for its patronising condescension toward
6954-494: 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. 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"
7076-483: The West's view of Hinduism." Central to his philosophy is the idea that the divine exists in all beings, that all human beings can achieve union with this "innate divinity", and that seeing this divine as the essence of others will further love and social harmony. According to Vivekananda, there is an essential unity to Hinduism, which underlies the diversity of its many forms. According to Flood, Vivekananda's view of Hinduism
7198-448: The attempt to impose any one approach to understanding the world. She suggests that there are "many maps, many windows," arguing that "we need scientific pluralism —the recognition that there are many independent forms and sources of knowledge—rather than reductivism, the conviction that one fundamental form underlies them all and settles everything." She writes that it is helpful to think of the world as "a huge aquarium. We cannot see it as
7320-673: The attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind and explain all phenomena by one unifying principle, or as manifestations of a single substance. The mind–body problem in philosophy examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain . The problem was addressed by René Descartes in the 17th century, resulting in Cartesian dualism , and by pre- Aristotelian philosophers, in Avicennian philosophy , and in earlier Asian and more specifically Indian traditions. It
7442-538: The attempts of René Descartes (1596–1650) to provide the natural sciences with dualist foundations. There followed the materialist and atheist abbé Jean Meslier (1664–1729), along with the 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 Enlightenment thinkers. In England, materialism
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#17328523755337564-460: The background issues out of which the small problems arose." In 1949 Midgley went to Reading University , teaching in the philosophy department there for four terms. In 1950 she married Geoffrey Midgley (died 1997), also a philosopher. They moved to Newcastle , where he got a job in the philosophy department of Newcastle University . Midgley stopped teaching for several years while she had three sons (Tom, David and Martin), before also getting
7686-567: The basis of moral absolutism , and rejected the dualistic notion that God and Satan are opposites, arguing instead that God has no equal, hence no opposite. Lewis rather viewed Satan as the opposite of Michael the archangel . Due to this, Lewis instead argued for a more limited type of dualism. Other theologians, such as Greg Boyd , have argued in more depth that the Biblical authors held a "limited dualism", meaning that God and Satan do engage in real battle, but only due to free will given by God, for
7808-448: The belief that the creator of the universe actually became the universe, and so ceased to exist as a separate entity. Through this synergy pandeism claims to answer primary objections to deism (why would God create and then not interact with the universe?) and to pantheism (how did the universe originate and what is its purpose?). The central problem in Asian (religious) philosophy is not
7930-515: The body-mind problem, but the search for an unchanging Real or Absolute beyond the world of appearances and changing phenomena, and the search for liberation from dukkha and the liberation from the cycle of rebirth . In Hinduism, substance-ontology prevails, seeing Brahman as the unchanging real beyond the world of appearances . In Buddhism, process ontology is prevalent, seeing reality as empty of an unchanging essence. Characteristic for various Asian philosophy, technology and religions
8052-459: The class of monist ontology , and is thus different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism . For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism is in contrast to idealism , neutral monism , and 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 Enlightenment thinkers. Despite
8174-405: The colonial orientation of the race for a "new" materialism. 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 Eurocentric tradition of inquiry at the expense of an Indigenous ethic of responsibility. Other scholars, such as Helene Vosters, echo their concerns and have questioned whether there
8296-422: The concept of historical materialism —the basis for what Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined as scientific socialism : 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
8418-450: The concept of Absolute Monism. Sikh philosophy advocates that all that our senses comprehend is an illusion; God is the ultimate reality. Forms being subject to time shall pass away. God's Reality alone is eternal and abiding. The thought is that Atma (soul) is born from, and a reflection of, ParamAtma (Supreme Soul), and "will again merge into it", in the words of the fifth guru of Sikhs, Guru Arjan , "just as water merges back into
8540-435: The concept of materialism to elaborate a materialist conception of history centered on the roughly empirical world of human activity (practice, including labor) and the institutions created, reproduced or destroyed by that activity. They also developed dialectical materialism , by taking Hegelian dialectics , stripping them of their idealist aspects, and fusing them with materialism (see Modern philosophy ). Materialism
8662-521: 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." The concept of matter has changed in response to new scientific discoveries. Thus materialism has no definite content independent of
8784-523: The connections between four women philosophers ( Foot , Anscombe , Midgley and Murdoch). Midgley left Oxford in 1942 and went into the civil service , as "the war put graduate work right out of the question". Instead, she "spent the rest of the war doing various kinds of work that were held to be of national importance". During this time she was also a teacher at Downe School and Bedford School . She returned to Oxford in 1947 to do graduate work with Gilbert Murray . She began research on Plotinus 's view of
8906-562: The conventional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of field physics in the 19th century. 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
9028-675: The creator is not to be confused with creation, but rather transcends it. There is a movement of " Christian Panentheism ". In On Free Choice of the Will , Augustine argued, in the context of the problem of evil , that evil is not the opposite of good, but rather merely the absence of good, something that does not have existence in itself. Likewise, C. S. Lewis described evil as a "parasite" in Mere Christianity , as he viewed evil as something that cannot exist without good to provide it with existence. Lewis went on to argue against dualism from
9150-463: The dialectical form of materialism. George Stack distinguishes between materialism and physicalism: 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
9272-467: The duration that God allows. Latter Day Saint theology also expresses a form of dual-aspect monism via materialism and eternalism , claiming that creation was ex materia (as opposed to ex nihilo in conventional Christianity), as expressed by Parley Pratt and echoed in view by the movement's founder Joseph Smith , making no distinction between the spiritual and the material, these being not just similarly eternal, but ultimately two manifestations of
9394-424: The emergence of analytic philosophy in the early twentieth century, which revolted against the neo-Hegelians. Rudolf Carnap and A. J. Ayer , who were strong proponents of positivism , "ridiculed the whole question as incoherent mysticism ". The mind–body problem has reemerged in social psychology and related fields, with the interest in mind–body interaction and the rejection of Cartesian mind–body dualism in
9516-527: The energy is a property of the field. 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. With the advent of quantum physics, some scientists believed
9638-558: The error of dichotomizing conceptualization, as Nagarjuna does, is not to address the question of the relationship between samsara and nirvana -or, in more philosophical terms, between phenomenal and ultimate reality [...] What, then, is the relationship between these two realms? This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan , the Oxherding Pictures , and Hakuin's Four ways of knowing . Sikhism complies with
9760-459: 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. Materialism developed, possibly independently, in several geographically separated regions of Eurasia during what Karl Jaspers termed
9882-447: The fact that Elizabeth [Anscombe] and I and Iris [Murdoch] and Philippa Foot and Mary Warnock have all made our names in philosophy... I do think that in normal times a lot of good female thinking is wasted because it simply doesn't get heard." Interest in the philosophy of the women philosophers at this time sparked the interest of two philosophers at Durham University , who began a project called In Parenthesis] which explores
10004-526: The illusion. 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 ... including knowledge and consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing." Erwin Schrödinger said, "Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness
10126-427: The inherent improbability of the order found in the universe. She argued that "there's some sort of tendency towards the formation of order", including towards life and "perceptive life". The best way, she argued, of talking about this is using the concept of "a life force", although she acknowledged that this is "vague". She also argued that "gratitude" is an important part of the motivation for theism . "You go out on
10248-439: The large number of philosophical schools and their nuances, all philosophies are said to fall into one of two primary categories, defined in contrast to each other: idealism and materialism . The basic proposition of these two categories pertains to the nature of reality: the primary difference between them is how they answer two fundamental questions—what reality consists of, and how it originated. To idealists, spirit or mind or
10370-457: The latter is similar to or associated with eternalism ( sassatavada ). Within Buddhism, a rich variety of philosophical and pedagogical models can be found. Various schools of Buddhism discern levels of truth: The Prajnaparamita-sutras and Madhyamaka emphasize the non-duality of form and emptiness: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as the heart sutra says. In Chinese Buddhism this
10492-488: 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
10614-456: The meaning of "real". While the lack of information makes it difficult in some cases to be sure of the details, the following pre-Socratic philosophers thought in monistic terms: Pantheism is the belief that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God, or that the universe (or nature ) is identical with divinity . Pantheists thus do or do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god, but believe that interpretations of
10736-479: The mid-19th century was German materialism , which included Ludwig Büchner (1824–1899), the Dutch-born Jacob Moleschott (1822–1893), and Carl Vogt (1817–1895), even though they had different views on core issues such as the evolution and the origins of life. Contemporary analytic philosophers (e.g. Daniel Dennett , Willard Van Orman Quine , Donald Davidson , and Jerry Fodor ) operate within
10858-415: The middle." Writing in the 2002 introduction to the reprint of Evolution as a Religion (1985), Midgley reported that she wrote both this book, and the later Science as Salvation (1992) to counter the "quasi-scientific speculation" of "certain remarkable prophetic and metaphysical passages that appeared suddenly in scientific books, often in their last chapters." Evolution as a Religion dealt with
10980-453: The objects of mind ( ideas ) are primary, and matter secondary. To materialists, matter is primary, and mind or spirit or ideas are secondary—the product of matter acting upon matter. The materialist view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically by René Descartes ; by itself, materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice, it
11102-478: The particular theory of matter on which it is based. According to Noam Chomsky , any property can be considered material, if one defines matter such that it has that property. The philosophical materialist Gustavo Bueno uses a more precise term than matter , the stroma. In 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
11224-617: The philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch. 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 . 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 naturalist -oriented materialist school of thought that developed in
11346-400: The reader to the change in meaning—and some of what she regarded as his rhetoric ("genes exert ultimate power over behaviour"), which she argued is more akin to religion than science. She wrote in a letter to The Guardian in 2005: [There is] widespread discontent with the neo-Darwinist —or Dawkinsist—orthodoxy that claims something which Darwin himself denied, namely that natural selection
11468-517: The same reality or substance. Parley Pratt implies a vitalism paired with evolutionary adaptation noting, "these eternal, self-existing elements possess in themselves certain inherent properties or attributes, in a greater or less degree; or, in other words, they possess intelligence, adapted to their several spheres." Parley Pratt's view is also similar to Gottfried Leibniz's monadology , which holds that "reality consists of mind atoms that are living centers of force." Brigham Young anticipates
11590-423: The sense of deism ) is a term describing beliefs coherently incorporating or mixing logically reconcilable elements of pantheism (that "God", or a metaphysically equivalent creator deity , is identical to Nature ) and classical deism (that the creator-god who designed the universe no longer exists in a status where it can be reached, and can instead be confirmed only by reason). It is therefore most particularly
11712-553: The son of the eminent judge Sir Thomas Edward Scrutton , was a curate in Dulwich and later chaplain of King's College, Cambridge . She was raised in Cambridge, Greenford and Ealing, and educated at Downe House School in Cold Ash, Berkshire , where she developed her interest in classics and philosophy: [A] new and vigorous Classics teacher offered to teach a few of us Greek , and that too
11834-416: The soul, which she has described as "so unfashionable and so vast that I never finished my thesis". In retrospect Midgley has written of her belief that she is "lucky" to have missed out on having a doctorate . She argues that one of the main flaws in doctoral training is that, while it "shows you how to deal with difficult arguments", it does not "help you to grasp the big questions that provide its context –
11956-426: The term monism is derived from Western philosophy to typify positions in the mind–body problem , it has also been used to typify religious traditions. In modern Hinduism, the term "absolute monism" has been applied to Advaita Vedanta , though Philip Renard points out that this may be a Western interpretation, bypassing the intuitive understanding of a nondual reality. It is more generally categorized by scholars as
12078-513: The term physicalism to materialism , while others use the terms as if they were synonymous . Discoveries of neural correlates between consciousness and the brain are taken as empirical support for materialism, but some philosophers of mind find that association fallacious or consider it compatible with non-materialist ideas. Alternative philosophies opposed or alternative to materialism or physicalism include idealism, pluralism , dualism , panpsychism , and other forms of monism . Epicureanism
12200-428: The term differ. Pantheism was popularized in the modern era as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza , whose Ethics was an answer to Descartes ' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate. Spinoza held that the two are the same, and this monism is a fundamental quality of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man," and used
12322-521: The text, which has an enigmatic and riddling style. As one reviewer noted, "the reader is not quite sure whether he is intended to spot some confusion or contradiction or non-sequitur in [the protagonist's] arguments." Other critics however have noted many affinities between The Lives of Animals and Midgley's philosophy, and have used Midgley's ideas to make sense of Coetzee's work. The main character, who also appears in Coetzee's novel Elizabeth Costello ,
12444-410: The theories of evolutionary biologists , including Dawkins , while Science as Salvation dealt with the theories of physicists and artificial intelligence researchers. Midgley writes that she still believes that these theories, "have nothing to do with any reputable theory of evolution," and will not solve the real social and moral problems the world is facing, either through genetic engineering or
12566-457: The use of machines. She concludes: "These schemes still seem to me to be just displacement activities proposed in order to avoid facing our real difficulties." "[I]n exposing these rhetorical attempts to turn science into a comprehensive ideology," she wrote in The myths we live by , "I am not attacking science but defending it against dangerous misconstructions." Midgley argued against reductionism, or
12688-522: The various and contrasting ideas that can be found in those texts. Within Vedanta, different schools exist: The colonisation of India by the British had a major impact on Hindu society. In response, leading Hindu intellectuals started to study western culture and philosophy, integrating several western notions into Hinduism. This modernised Hinduism, at its turn, has gained popularity in the west. A major role
12810-723: The water." God and Soul are fundamentally the same; identical in the same way as Fire and its sparks. "Atam meh Ram, Ram meh Atam" which means "The Ultimate Eternal reality resides in the Soul and the Soul is contained in Him". As from one stream, millions of waves arise and yet the waves, made of water, again become water; in the same way all souls have sprung from the Universal Being and would blend again into it. Jewish thought considers God as separate from all physical, created things and as existing outside of time. According to Maimonides , God
12932-456: The word God to describe the unity of all substance. Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. H. P. Owen claimed that Pantheists are "monists" ... they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it. Pantheism is closely related to monism, as pantheists too believe all of reality
13054-428: The world as "One", which could not change in any way. Zeno of Elea defended this view of everything being a single entity through his paradoxes, which aim to show the existence of time, motion and space to be illusionary. Baruch Spinoza argued that 'God or Nature' ( Deus sive Natura ) is the only substance of the universe, which can be referred to as either ' God ' or ' Nature ' (the two being interchangeable). This
13176-399: The world's religions should not simply be ignored: "It turns out that the evils which have infested religion are not confined to it, but are ones that can accompany any successful human institution. Nor is it even clear that religion itself is something that the human race either can or should be cured of." Midgley's book Wickedness (1984) has been described as coming "closest to addressing
13298-447: Was a British philosopher . A senior lecturer in philosophy at Newcastle University , she was known for her work on science, ethics and animal rights . She wrote her first book, Beast and Man (1978), when she was in her late fifties, and went on to write over 15 more, including Animals and Why They Matter (1983), Wickedness (1984), The Ethical Primate (1994), Evolution as a Religion (1985), and Science as Salvation (1992). She
13420-417: Was an examination of human nature and a reaction against the reductionism of sociobiology , and the relativism and behaviorism she saw as prevalent in much of social science. She argued that human beings are more similar to animals than many social scientists then acknowledged, while animals are in many ways more sophisticated than was often accepted. She criticized existentialists who argued that there
13542-688: Was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by Durham University in 1995 and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law by Newcastle University in 2008. She was an honorary fellow of the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at Newcastle University. In 2011 she was the first winner of the Philosophy Now Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity. Midgley died at the age of 99 in Jesmond on 10 October 2018. Midgley argued that philosophy
13664-461: Was awarded honorary doctorates by Durham and Newcastle universities. Her autobiography, The Owl of Minerva , was published in 2005. Midgley strongly opposed reductionism and scientism , and argued against any attempt to make science a substitute for the humanities . She wrote extensively about what she thought philosophers can learn from nature, particularly from animals. Midgley insisted that humans ought to be understood as first and foremost,
13786-525: Was developed in the philosophies of Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), and John Locke (1632–1704). Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) became one of the most important materialist philosophers in the 18th century. 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
13908-428: Was later also applied to the theory of absolute identity set forth by Hegel and Schelling . Thereafter the term was more broadly used, for any theory postulating a unifying principle. The opponent thesis of dualism also was broadened, to include pluralism. According to Urmson, as a result of this extended use, the term is "systematically ambiguous". According to Jonathan Schaffer , monism lost popularity due to
14030-401: Was no such thing as human nature and writers such as Desmond Morris who she understood as arguing that human nature was "brutal and nasty". Instead, she argued that human beings and their relationship with animals could be better understood by using the qualitative methods of ethology and comparative psychology , and that this approach showed that "we do have a nature and it's much more in
14152-477: Was not material precludes labelling them as materialists). Buddhist atomism and the Jaina school continued the atomic tradition. Ancient Greek atomists like Leucippus , Democritus and Epicurus prefigure later materialists. The Latin poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (99 – c. 55 BC) reflects the mechanistic philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. According to this view, all that exists
14274-508: Was on the committee of the newly formed Democratic Socialist Club alongside Tony Crosland and Roy Jenkins . During Midgley's time at Oxford, many of the young male undergraduates left to fight in the Second World War . This left the women undergraduates in an unlikely positions: for the first time they made up the majority in the student body. Recalling this time, Midgley writes "I think myself that this experience has something to do with
14396-401: Was part of her "principal passion" of "reviving our reverence for the earth". Midgley also described Gaia as a "breakthrough", as it was "the first time a theory derived from scientific measurements has carried with it an implicit moral imperative – the need to act in the interests of this living system on which we all depend. In 2001 Midgley founded, along with David Midgley and Tom Wakeford,
14518-483: Was played in the 19th century by Swami Vivekananda in the revival of Hinduism , and the spread of Advaita Vedanta to the west via the Ramakrishna Mission . His interpretation of Advaita Vedanta has been called Neo-Vedanta . In Advaita, Shankara suggests meditation and Nirvikalpa Samadhi are means to gain knowledge of the already existing unity of Brahman and Atman , not the highest goal itself: [Y]oga
14640-411: Was reserved for intellectuals and academics. In her view, it is something we all do — an activity that is part of the human conditions. Despite her upbringing, she did not embrace Christianity herself, because, she says, "I couldn't make it work. I would try to pray and it didn't seem to get me anywhere so I stopped after a while. But I think it's a perfectly sensible world view." She also argues that
14762-417: Was somehow slotted into our timetables. We loved this and worked madly at it, which meant that with considerable efforts on all sides, it was just possible for us to go to college on Classics … I had decided to read Classics rather than English – which was the first choice that occurred to me – because my English teacher, bless her, pointed out that English literature is something that you read in any case, so it
14884-470: Was understood to mean that ultimate reality is not a transcendental realm, but equal to the daily world of relative reality. This idea was well-situated for the existing Chinese culture, which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how the absolute is present in the relative world: To deny the duality of samsara and nirvana, as the Perfection of Wisdom does, or to demonstrate logically
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