1. Chapter 10
Materialism

2. Materialism and Idealism
Everything, Descartes reasoned:
Could be doubted except the fact that he was thinking
It may seem sheer madness to try to deny the physical reality of the world
Idealist’s argument
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3. Materialism and Science; Dualism and the Mind–Body Problem
Materialism is the metaphysical system supporting and supported by both:
Common sense and science
The problem of interaction
Materialism & idealism claim to remove the mind–body problem by denying:
One of the two items that make up the duality
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4. Materialism and Religious Belief
Materialism is also perceived as a threat to religious belief
The idealist also finds materialism:
Strangely alien to our most immediate and direct experience of the world
Recent scientific developments softened the clash between idealists & materialists
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5. Ancient Materialism: Atomism
The most persistent form of materialism is known as atomism
Atomism is one of the earliest philosophical and scientific theories
For materialists, a human being is nothing more than a complex material machine
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6. Atomism and Freedom
The implications of materialism for religion and for the question of human freedom
Epicurus & Lucretius argue for:
An element of human freedom, choice, spontaneity, & accident in the world generally
Trying to reconcile materialistic atomism with human freedom
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7. Atomism and Mental Phenomena
How to explain mental phenomena, especially how we come to have ideas of:
Things and to think about them and describe them linguistically
Epicurus also anticipates the modern mind–body problem
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8. Epicurus: First Principle of Materialism
The universe consists of material bodies and void
The universe as a whole is infinite
The atoms move without interruption through all time
There is nothing to prevent believing that the creation of idols is as swift as thought
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9. Materialism and the New Science
The Muslims finally decided that it was unwise to try to mix religion with the:
Newly discovered Greek & Roman philosophy and science and so rejected it in the end
Gassendi was one of those who tried to:
Continue the reconciliation of Greek thought with Judeo-Christian traditions
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10. Reconciling Materialism and Religion
Gassendi’s attempt to reconcile materialism with Christian faith is:
Interesting, since materialism has historically been used to undercut the claims of:
Those who believe in an immaterial God
Our views of physical reality have been shaped by the breakthroughs in physics
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