Scientific Materialism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Being

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Matter Today

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 3-16

      PDF

   3. Materialism Today

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 17-31

      PDF

3. Becoming

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33

      PDF

   2. Modes of Becoming

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 35-40

      PDF

   3. A Critique of Dialectics

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 41-63

      PDF

4. Mind

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 65-65

      PDF

   2. A Materialist Theory of Mind

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 67-89

      PDF

   3. Mind Evolving

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 91-105

      PDF

5. Culture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

      PDF

   2. A Materialist Concept of Culture

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 109-135

      PDF

   3. Popper’s Unworldly World 3

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 137-157

      PDF

6. Concept

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159

      PDF

   2. The Status of Concepts

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 161-174

      PDF

   3. Logic, Semantics, and Ontology

      • Mario Bunge

      Pages 175-192

      PDF

7. Back Matter

   Pages 193-219

   PDF

The word 'materialism' is ambiguous: it designates a moral doc­ trine as well as a philosophy and, indeed, an entire world view. Moral materialism is identical with hedonism, or the doctrine that humans should pursue only their own pleasure. Philosophical ma­ terialismis the view that the real worId is composed exclusively of material things. The two doctrines are logically independent: hedonism is consistent with immaterialism, and materialism is compatible with high minded morals. We shall be concerned ex­ c1usively with philosophical materialism. And we shall not confuse it with realism, or the epistemological doctrine that knowIedge, or at any rate scientific knowledge, attempts to represent reality. Philosophical materialism is not a recent fad and it is not a solid block: it is as old as philosophy and it has gone through six quite different stages. The first was ancient materialism, centered around Greek and Indian atomism. The second was the revival of the first during the 17th century. The third was 18th century ma­ terialism, partly derived from one side of Descartes' ambiguous legacy. The fourth was the mid-19th century "scientific" material­ ism, which flourished mainly in Germany and England, and was tied to the upsurge of chemistry and biology. The fifth was dialec­ tical and historical materialism, which accompanied the consolida­ tion of the socialist ideology. And the sixth or current stage, evolved mainly by Australian and American philosophers, is aca­ demic and nonpartisan but otherwise very heterogeneous. Ancient materialism was thoroughly mechanistic.

• Karl R. Popper
• concept
• culture
• dialectic
• logic
• materialism
• ontology
• semantic
• semantics
• subject

• Foundations and Philosophy of Science Unit, McGill University, Canada

  Mario Bunge

Policies and ethics