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My argument against materialism

punshhh said:
Good morning Pixy,

Please define "materialism", I am unfamiliar with the term.

Is it distinct from science?
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Well we break down the word and we see that 'mater' is Latin for 'mother' and 'ism' means 'of or pertaining to' so we see the word means that those who believe the world is all there is are sucking on the teat of Big Sci and will never acknowledge the infinite nature of the cosmos.
 
tsig said:
Well we break down the word and we see that 'mater' is Latin for 'mother' and 'ism' means 'of or pertaining to' so we see the word means that those who believe the world is all there is are sucking on the teat of Big Sci and will never acknowledge the infinite nature of the cosmos.
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I disagree. The word was coined by Aldous Huxley. Under the influence of mescalin he saw a tear in his doormat which seemed to have meaning and contained the secrets of the universe. Mat Tear Realism,materialism.
 
punshhh said:
Good morning Pixy,

Please define "materialism", I am unfamiliar with the term.

Is it distinct from science?
Click to expand...
Let me take the question seriously and give my two cent's worth.

Materialism is the position that any statement outside of mathematics that purports to have a truth value is a theory and that the main test of a good theory is the extent to which it is empirically verifiable.

Theories can either be eliminated in favour of better theories, or else they are reducible to more fine grained theories.

Thus the theories expressed by the Greek Pantheon can be eliminated in favour of the theories expressed by biology, geology, cosmology, physics etc.

On the other hand biology is said to be reducible to physics.
 
Robin said:
Let me take the question seriously and give my two cent's worth.

Materialism is the position that any statement outside of mathematics that purports to have a truth value is a theory and that the main test of a good theory is the extent to which it is empirically verifiable.

Theories can either be eliminated in favour of better theories, or else they are reducible to more fine grained theories.

Thus the theories expressed by the Greek Pantheon can be eliminated in favour of the theories expressed by biology, geology, cosmology, physics etc.

On the other hand biology is said to be reducible to physics.
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What is the event horizon of the formless reducible to? Punshhh?
 
I'm still waiting for Ken's lawyers to knock on my door in connection with the world shaking breach of copyright case. He seems to have flown the coop,perhaps he is on his way here to make a citizen's arrest,or bore me to death with his purple prose.
 
Robin said:
Let me take the question seriously and give my two cent's worth.

Materialism is the position that any statement outside of mathematics that purports to have a truth value is a theory and that the main test of a good theory is the extent to which it is empirically verifiable.

Theories can either be eliminated in favour of better theories, or else they are reducible to more fine grained theories.

Thus the theories expressed by the Greek Pantheon can be eliminated in favour of the theories expressed by biology, geology, cosmology, physics etc.

On the other hand biology is said to be reducible to physics.
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Thankyou Robin,

As I suspected materialism is a siamese twin with science, or perhaps as described by tsig, a suckling.

How did this situation arise?

Was materialism born out of the process of analysing scientific experiments, or was a philosophical discipline adopted by the scientists?
 
punshhh, do you have an argument against materialism? If yes, please present it. If not, please start a thread "Materialism for beginners" where you can ask questions all day long. This thread is about arguments against materialism. Try to stick to the topic. Thanks.
 
punshhh said:
Thankyou Robin,

As I suspected materialism is a siamese twin with science, or perhaps as described by tsig, a suckling.
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No, no and no. This is very important. Science does not rely upon the assumption of a unifying theory. Materialism does.

Big difference. Compare with Physicalism (at least in it's original form as set out by Neurath) which explicitly rejects the assumption that theories reduce to a single theory.
 
Robin said:
No, no and no. This is very important. Science does not rely upon the assumption of a unifying theory. Materialism does.

Big difference. Compare with Physicalism (at least in it's original form as set out by Neurath) which explicitly rejects the assumption that theories reduce to a single theory.
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Can you give me the unifying theory of materialism, or give me a reference?
 
laca said:
punshhh, do you have an argument against materialism? If yes, please present it. If not, please start a thread "Materialism for beginners" where you can ask questions all day long. This thread is about arguments against materialism. Try to stick to the topic. Thanks.
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After pixy told me I know nothing of "materialism", I now require a definition or explanation in order to continue.

I am happy to begin a thread on this if you are unable to tell me what materialism is concerned with.
 
Belz... said:
Stuff exists.
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Thanks, I'm disappointed I missed the part about stuff in this thread.

So materialism is concerned with the activity of the stuff, right?

The stuff acts and interacts with itself to form existence as can be tested and verified by science?

Does materialism include any philosophy of stuff?
 
punshhh said:
Thanks, I'm disappointed I missed the part about stuff in this thread.

So materialism is concerned with the activity of the stuff, right?

The stuff acts and interacts with itself to form existence as can be tested and verified by science?

Does materialism include any philosophy of stuff?
Click to expand...

Philosophy, shmilosophy. We're talking about reality, here.
 
punshhh said:
Thanks, I'm disappointed I missed the part about stuff in this thread.

So materialism is concerned with the activity of the stuff, right?

The stuff acts and interacts with itself to form existence as can be tested and verified by science?

Does materialism include any philosophy of stuff?
Click to expand...


No.
 
punshhh said:
Thanks, I'm disappointed I missed the part about stuff in this thread.

So materialism is concerned with the activity of the stuff, right?

The stuff acts and interacts with itself to form existence as can be tested and verified by science?

Does materialism include any philosophy of stuff?
Click to expand...
Try Materialism.

If that isn't sufficient, try this.
 
Belz... said:
Philosophy, shmilosophy. We're talking about reality, here.
Click to expand...

So materialism is the sidekick of science, right?

If not, how can I distinguish materialism from science?

I say this because I am often not sure if I am debating with scientists or "materialists".
 
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