Materialism
One of the two main tendencies in philosophy which gives a specific reply to the fundamental problem of the relation between thought and existence. Materialism recognizes matter as the primary element, and consciousness (or thought) secondary. It relies on science particularly the physical sciences. Dialectal materialism recuperates the entire materialist tradition preceding it and re-elaborates everything of value in it (149). Below is a dissection of the three popular forms of Materialism.
Materialism (Dialectical): The philosophical doctrine formulated by Marx and Engels, so called because of its dialectical manner of confronting, studying and understanding natural phenomena; and materialist by its manner of interpreting phenomena and drawing up its theory. Dialectical materialism is the only scientific interpretation of the world; and it is opposed to idealism which offers and interpretation based on religion (150).
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Materialism (Historical): The Marxist doctrine of the development of human society. Historical materialism sees in the development of material goods necessary to human existence the primary force which determines all social life (and which conditions the transition from one kind of social order to another). The growth of human power over nature finds its expression in the development of the productive forces of society. The transmutation of economic-social forces throughout history (primitive communal, slave, feudal and capital states) is, above all, a change from certain kinds of productive modes and relations towards other more progressive ones. Such change is the necessary effect, the cause of which are the laws to which social productive forces everywhere submit. Discovery of the real basis of life and social development (material production) allows one to see for the first time the importance of the creative spirit of the masses. Great men were not the ones alone to make history, but the workers, the real prime movers of the production process, those who accomplished the material tasks necessary for social subsistence (150).
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Materialism (Mechanistic): An early form of materialism which sought to explain all natural phenomena by mechanical laws. It considers motion not as change in general but as the mechanical displacement of bodies in space due to external influences--the mere collision of two entities. Mechanistic materialism denies the spontaneous movement of bodies, their qualitative change, the development by leaps, the passage from inferior to superior (150).
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