Materialism
ontological: nature/matter is primary, consciousnessis secondary. An objective external world exists outside and independently of mind, and would exist if no mind ever had.
epistemological: our sensations, perceptions, and concepts are images (reflections, copies) of that external world.What (successful) science converges to is an approximation of this mind-independent reality, not a construction of consciousness, not God’s thoughts, not discourse, … just what is:
Link to originalThe materialist definiton of matter
Matter is the objective reality given to us in sensation, existing independently of it and reflected by it.
Matter is a philosophical category denoting the objective reality which is given to man by his sensations, and which is copied, photographed and reflected by our sensations, while existing independently of them.
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Circular transclusion detected: library/materialism-and-empirio-criticism/materialism-and-empirio-criticism
Matter is a metaphysical necessity for materialism
If time had an absolute beginning, you need something outside time to start it. That something is either (i) another material thing with its own “before” (didn’t solve anything), (ii) God/Idea, or (iii) a contradiction (beginning requires a prior frame).
The materialist belief is that matter and motion are eternal and uncreated.
related: realism, scientific realism, pancomputationalism, pancomputational enactivism
There is probably no dead matter anywhere, only minimally active matter and lazy observers.
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