[Edit this paragraph] Overview of meaning

Materialism is a philosophical thought. This philosophy holds that between consciousness and matter, matter determines consciousness, and consciousness is the reflection of the objective world in the human brain. That is, [[organic compound | organic matter]] is due to the reaction to substances. The basic viewpoint is summarized as material first and spirit second, the origin of the world is material, and spirit is the product and reflection of material.

Materialism is different from mechanical materialism and dialectical materialism. Mechanical materialism holds that the material world is made up of individuals, just like all kinds of mechanical parts make up a big machine, which will not change. Dialectical materialism holds that the material world is always in motion and change, and they influence and relate to each other. The representative of mechanical materialism is Feuerbach, and the representative of dialectical materialism is Marx, Engels and Lenin.

Materialist dialectics includes the law of unity of opposites, the law of mutual change of quality, the law of negation of negation and its essence and phenomenon, content and form, cause and result, inevitability and contingency, possibility and reality. In some countries' propaganda materials and philosophy courses in secondary and higher education, materialist dialectics is described as follows: "Because the laws and categories of materialist dialectics are abstracted from nature and social life itself, they are not only the universal laws of the movement and development of objective things themselves, but also the universal laws of understanding, which are both world outlook and methodology. Materialist dialectics is not a rigid system. With the development of human practical movement, it constantly has new meanings, new categories and laws. "

In the world, not all scientific workers and philosophical researchers agree with the philosophical school of dialectical materialism. Einstein once commented after reading Engels' Manuscript of Dialectics of Nature: "Mr. eduard bernstein gave me a manuscript of Engels' natural science, and entrusted me to express my opinion to see if this manuscript should be printed. My opinion is as follows: if this manuscript is written by an author who is not noticeable as a historical figure, then I will not suggest publishing it, because the content of this manuscript is completely nonsense and crazy from the perspective of contemporary physics and the history of physics. However, I can imagine that this book can be published reluctantly if it is considered as an interesting document to clarify Engels' thoughts. " (Complete Works of Einstein, Volume I, Commercial Press, 1977, p. 202)

[Edit this paragraph] Historical form

(1) ancient naive materialism: reduce matter to concrete forms of matter. China's ancient "Five Elements" said: Gold, wood, water, fire and earth are the origins of the world. Heraclitus in ancient Greece (540-480 BC): "Fire" is the origin of all things, and the world was, is and will be an eternal living fire that burns and goes out according to laws. "The world was not created by any god or anyone. Its past, present and future will always be an eternal living fire. Burn to a certain extent and extinguish to a certain extent. "

② The combination of mechanical materialism and modern natural science has overcome ancient naive materialism's intuition and conjecture, but it also has three fundamental defects: mechanical, metaphysical and incomplete (the historical view is idealism).

③ Dialectical materialism and historical materialism, that is, Marxist philosophy.

[Edit this paragraph] Main contents

unity of opposites

Marx and Engels believe that everything that exists is composed of opposing parts. For example, electrical phenomena contain positive and negative charges; Atoms are a whole, but they are also composed of hydrogen nuclei and electrons with opposite charges. Marx and Engels' thought of unity of opposites originated from Hegel.

Mao Zedong's On Contradiction elaborated on the unity of opposites.

Mass interconversion

There are two properties of matter: quality and quantity. Quality refers to the nature of matter, not quality; Quantity refers to the quantity that measures the state of matter. From quantitative change to qualitative change, that is to say, matter is always in constant change. However, in the process of changing from one property to another, it is always accumulated by small changes (called quantitative changes), and the accumulation of small changes eventually leads to the change of matter from one property to another.

negation of the negation

The negation principle of negation comes from Hegel's three-stage theory of positive-negative-combination: positive things will transition to negative and become negative due to the development of internal contradictions, which is the first negation; The transition from the opposite stage to the opposite stage is the negation of negation. After the negation of negation, although things have returned to the "normal" state, they are not the original state, but go up a storey still higher.

China folk proverb "extremes meet" is the first negation; "No, it's too late" is the negation of negation.

Matter and consciousness

Which is the primary problem, thinking or being? Different answers to this question can be divided into materialism and idealism.

(2) The question of whether thinking and existence are identical: the different answers to this question are divided into two factions: knowability and agnosticism;

③ The only criterion to distinguish materialism from idealism is their different answers to the first aspect of the basic question of philosophy: the relationship between matter and consciousness is different from the dialectical relationship between matter and consciousness.

The dialectical relationship between matter and consciousness is a proposition of Marxist philosophy, which means that on the one hand, matter determines consciousness, on the other hand, consciousness has a dynamic role (consciousness actively reflects the objective material world, and consciousness actively reacts to it). This is a correct revelation of the dialectical relationship between matter and consciousness. The relationship between matter and consciousness mentioned in the basic problems of philosophy includes two contents: first, what is the origin of the world and what it determines; Second, whether consciousness can correctly reflect matter and whether thinking can correctly understand objective existence. The correct answer to these two aspects is that matter determines consciousness, and consciousness can correctly reflect matter. It can be seen that the second answer here is different from the second one mentioned above, and the "relationship" mentioned in the two places is different.

As a basic problem of philosophy, it is a summary of the history of philosophy. Philosophy in history has answered two basic questions of philosophy in different forms. Marxist philosophy not only correctly answers the basic questions of philosophy at a new height, but also further scientifically points out the dialectical relationship between matter and consciousness.

[Edit this paragraph] is essentially different from idealism.

Materialism: the essence of the world is matter, and there is matter in the world before consciousness. Matter determines consciousness, and consciousness is the reflection of matter (matter first, consciousness second).

Xunzi in the Warring States Period: "Heaven and earth combine to create everything, and Yin and Yang change to be born."

Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Heaven and earth are in harmony, and everything is born by itself."

Fan Zhen in the Southern Dynasties: "If the form exists, the god will exist, and if the form is thanked, the god will be destroyed."

Wang Fuzhi of the Ming Dynasty said, "Those who are angry are justified." "There is only instrument in the world", "Tao is the way of instrument" and "Without instrument, there is no way".

Idealism: The essence of the world is consciousness, not matter determines consciousness, but consciousness determines matter (consciousness comes first, matter comes second).

① Subjective idealism: The world is created and decided by human consciousness. Lu Xiangshan, a philosopher in the Song Dynasty, said, "The universe is my heart, and my heart is the universe."

Wang Yangming, a philosopher in the Ming Dynasty, said, "There is nothing outside the heart."

British philosopher Becquerel: Being is perceived. Things are "combinations of feelings" and "collections of ideas".

Objective idealism: The world is created and decided by some kind of god or unpredictable absolute concept. Zhu, a philosopher in the Song Dynasty, said, "The reason lies in advance."

Plato: the world is the shadow of "idea" Hegel: the essence of the world is the "absolute spirit" that exists independently.

Religion: God, the idealism that God creates and dominates the world, although there are some differences, is essentially the same. Everyone thinks that thinking and consciousness are primary and existence and matter are secondary, which reverses the real relationship between thinking and existence, consciousness and matter and deviates from natural science and people's practical experience.

[Edit this paragraph] What is materialism?

Peng zheye

The most basic idea of materialism is to recognize the difference between matter and consciousness. There is a material world outside our consciousness, which exists before our consciousness. Matter determines consciousness, and it is matter that ultimately determines consciousness. Simply put, as long as we admit that it is matter that plays a decisive role in consciousness, this is materialism.

There used to be a joke that God asked a god to count the number of good people and bad people in this world. The great god first counted the number of bad people in the world, but he was impressed by the workload. So he changed his method and counted the number of good people instead. As a result, the task was completed at once.

Since there are different forms of idealism in this world, there is only one truth. Therefore, we simply define all anti-materialism as idealism, thus defining idealism simply and clearly.

Thorough subjective idealism holds that there is no distinction between consciousness and matter in this world, that is to say, there is only consciousness but no matter in this world. In this case, the final decisive role of matter on consciousness certainly does not exist. Subjective theism holds that human consciousness is immortal. In this way, human consciousness is directly or disguised as the soul after death. Since consciousness is immortal, the final decisive role of matter on consciousness no longer exists. Thorough objective theism holds that the world was created by God, and it was created by God himself. Thorough objective theism, the so-called god must be personified. So this kind of god can fall into the category of what we call generalized consciousness. Since objective theism believes that the world is created by God, it is God who plays the final role in this world, and it is God who plays the final role in human consciousness, not the material world. Thorough materialism, thorough objective idealism and thorough subjective idealism are all monistic philosophies, which hold that there is only one thing in this world that plays the final decisive role. There is also a dualist philosophy that denies that matter determines consciousness and that consciousness determines matter. But it denies that it is matter that plays the final decisive role in consciousness, so it also belongs to what we call idealism. There is also a pantheism. The so-called god in this pantheism may not be personified, but this kind of god is the so-called supernatural power. If this supernatural power exists, it is undoubtedly this supernatural power that plays a final and decisive role in this world. So in the same way, pantheism also denies the ultimate decisive role of the material world in consciousness.

From the above definitions of materialism and idealism, we can clearly distinguish materialism and idealism. So this definition is valid!

[Edit this paragraph] Important supplement

Peng zheye

Materialism holds that matter determines consciousness, and consciousness reacts on matter. Overexaggerating the effect of consciousness on matter is subjective idealism. It is objective idealism to exaggerate the effect of matter on consciousness.

The most basic methodology of materialism is the combination of subjective and objective. It holds that practice is the only criterion for testing truth. Only in practice can we finally test the truth in the combination of subjectivity and objectivity. Whether it is objective idealism or subjective idealism, their basic methodology is the separation of subject and object, and their proof of truth always tries to prove everything in consciousness. Oppose taking practice as the sole criterion for testing truth. Because the most basic methodology of objective idealism and subjective idealism is the separation of subjective and objective, they are both called idealism. This methodology is the most essential similarity between them.

Warning: Please don't preach that idealism is wrong! Undoubtedly, there is an essential contradiction between materialism and idealism, but who is right and who is wrong is still inconclusive. Encyclopedia only needs an introduction without emotion, without prejudice!

[Edit this paragraph] Explanation of words

Nominal materialism

Pinyin zhǔ y:

Explain that the world is essentially material and exists objectively without relying on people's consciousness. Consciousness is a philosophical view that material exists in the human brain.

Synonym materialism

The antonym of idealism