MATERIALISMDETERMINISM

FREE WILLPHILOSOPHY

CHAPTER 12

MATERIALISM

In philosophy, doctrine that all existence is resolvable into matter or into an attribute or effect of matter

According to this doctrine, matter is the ultimate reality, and the phenomenon of consciousness is explained by physiochemical changes in the nervous system

It is the antithesis of idealism

ANTI-RELIGIOUS MATERIALISM

•It is motivated by a spirit of hostility toward the theological dogmas of organized religion, particularly those of Christianity

•Notable among its exponents were the 18th-century French philosophers:▫Denis Diderot▫Paul Henri d'Holbach▫Julien Offroy de La Mettrie

French philosopher, physician, and proponent of materialism, the doctrine that all beings and phenomena are explicable in terms of matter or the effects of matter

DENNIS DIDEROT

Eighteenth-century French philosopher and writer who compiled the an encyclopedia that reflected the European intellectual movement known as the Age of Reason

He spent much of his life writing and editing the 35-volume work, known in short as the Encyclopédie

With this liberal and rationalist reference work, he sought to combat the authority of the church and the prevailing superstitions and conservatism of his time

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM•According this, as set forth in the writings of

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Ilich Lenin, in every historical epoch the prevailing economic system by which the necessities of life are produced determines the form of societal organization and the political, religious, ethical, intellectual, and artistic history of the epoch

German political philosopher and revolutionary, the most important of all socialist thinkers and the creator of a system of thought called MarxismWith political economist Friedrich Engels, he founded scientific socialism (now known as communism); for this, Marx is considered one of the most influential thinkers of all time

FRIEDRICH ENGELS

A German revolutionary political economist, worked with fellow German revolutionary, Karl Marx, from 1842 to 1883

Together, the two defined communismThey completed their famous treatise on the

collapse of capitalism and rise of communism, The Communist Manifesto, in 1848, and in 1870 helped found the:

FIRST INTERNATIONAL▫An international Socialist organization

He wrote many of his own treatises on socialism and is also known for editing and publishing the second and third volumes of Das Kapital following the death of Marx in 1883

•He gained political stature through his writings and then as head of the radical socialist Bolshevik Party

•He led the 1917 Bolshevik takeover of Russia's Provisional Government, which had governed the country since the fall of tsarist rule a few months earlier

•After the revolution, He became the leader of the new Soviet state

•VLADIMIR LENIN

A member of the radical group within the Russian Social

Democratic Labor Party that became the

Communist Party in 1918

MODERN TIMES PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM

•It has been largely influenced by the doctrine of evolution and may indeed be said to have been assimilated in the wider theory of evolution

•Supporters of the theory of evolution go beyond the mere antitheism or atheism of materialism and seek positively to show how the diversities and differences in creation are the result of natural as opposed to supernatural processes

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

•The anthropological theory that environment, resources, technology, and other material things are the major influences on cultural change

CHRISTIAN MATERIALISM• A Christian devotion to

material wealth and possessions at the expense of spiritual or intellectual values

OPUS DEI▫ It was established in

1928 by Spanish priest Josémaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albas and was approved by the papacy in 1950

▫ In 1982 Pope John Paul II agreed to the organization’s request to become a prelature

• (Latin, “Work of God”) or Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, international Roman Catholic organization dedicated to applying the principles of Christianity to secular life and work

• It generated controversy, with critics charging that it is unduly secretive and advances a highly conservative theological and political agenda

DETERMINISM• The doctrine or belief that everything, including

every human act, is caused by something and that there is no real free will

• A philosophical doctrine holding that every event, mental as well as physical, has a cause, and that, the cause being given, the event follows invariably

• This theory denies the element of chance or contingency

• It is opposed to Indifferentism, or Indeterminism, which maintains that, in phenomena of the human will, preceding events do not definitely determine subsequent ones

• Because determinism is generally assumed to be true of all events except volition, the doctrine is of greatest importance when applied to ethics

The belief that variations in doctrine and

practice within a religion are unimportant

The philosophical theory that

human beings have free will

and their actions are not

always and completely

determined by previous events

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM

It argues that modern society is no longer living in the industrial age of the 19th and earlier 20th centuries

They argue that postindustrial society is already a reality, and that the complex socio technical networks mediated by advanced electronics have made obsolete the institutions of nationalistic governments, capitalistic corporations, and heavily populated cities

• An approach to geographic study resulted in claims for the superiority of the peoples of the Temperate Zone to those of the Tropics and intermediate zones

• Such work is today viewed as ethnocentric and of doubtful scientific validity

The parts of Earth that lie between the tropics and the polar circles and generally

have hot summers, cold winters, and intermediate

falls and springs

FREE WILL• The ability to act or make choices as a

free and autonomous being and not solely as a result of compulsion or predestination

• The validity of free will has also been a subject of considerable debate among ethical philosophers

• It would appear that a system of ethics must imply free will, for the denial of the ability to choose a course of action would seem to negate the possibility of moral judgment

• A person without moral judgment is not responsible for his or her actions