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.
Link to original
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.
Link to original
Mental properties are a function of highly organized matter.
lenin, in Materialism and Empirio-criticism: sensation exists in embryo in all matter, consciousness is a qualitative leap in a continuum, not lux ex tenebris (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts). In other words, to be real (to exist) is to stand in relation with other things, i.e. to interact, and thereby also leave an imprint of yourself (“reflect”).
Is the “third way” just dialectical materialism?
Levels of coherent interdependent organization, qualitative leaps without a new ontological category, biological relativity all the way
— Engels and Lenin were saying almost exactly this (emergence as a qualitative leap in a continuum, not lux ex tenebris).
Ask whether she sees a real difference from dialectical materialism, or is reconstructing it from biology.