Historical materialism

Historical materialism
the philosophical view that the only thing that can truly be said to 'exist' is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of 'material' and all phenomena are the result of material interactions.
• Christian materialism - the philosophical view that the only thing that can truly be said to 'exist' is matter due to the teachings of Christ.
• Dialectical materialism - considered to be the philosophical basis of Marxism, it states that ideas and arguments can only exist as matter and that the subconscious protohuman does not exist.
• Historical materialism - the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx. His fundamental proposition of historical materialism can be summed up in the following: It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. — Karl Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human societies in the way in which humans collectively make the means to live, thus giving an emphasis, through economic analysis, to everything that co-exists with the economic base of society (e.g. social classes, political structures, ideologies).
• Eliminative materialism - absolute version of materialism and physicalism with respect to mental entities and mental vocabulary, according to which our common-sense understanding of the mind (what eliminativists call folk psychology) is not a viable theory on which to base scientific investigation: behaviour and experience can only be adequately explained on the biological level. Therefore, no coherent neural basis will be found for everyday folk psychological concepts (such as belief , desire and intention, for they are illusory and therefore do not have any consistent neurological substrate. Eliminative materialists therefore believe that consciousness does not exist except as an epiphenomenon of brain function and some believe that the concept will eventually be eliminated as neuroscience progresses.
• Emergent materialism - a philosophy which asserts that the mind is an irreducible existent in some sense, albeit not in the sense of being an ontological simple, and that the study of mental phenomena is independent of other sciences.
• Evolutionary materialism - the philosophical view that the only thing that can truly be said to 'exist' is matter and that the process of observing such existence evolves and changes over time.
• French materialism - a philosophy which holds that both the associationist psychology and Empiricism of John Locke with the Totality of Isaac Newton are correct and compatible with each other.
• Reductive materialism - Reductionism

Mini philosophy glossary . 2014.

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  • Historical materialism —    “Historical materialism” is not a term that Karl Marx himself used, but it has become the commonly used label for what Marx called his “materialist conception of history.” The key idea of historical materialism is that the basis of society and …   Historical dictionary of Marxism

  • historical materialism — n. an interpretation of history, esp. in Marxist theory, that holds that the chief determinants of society and social institutions are economic factors …   English World dictionary

  • Historical materialism — Part of a series on Marxism …   Wikipedia

  • historical materialism — The classical Marxist view of history. It is described by Engels in the introduction to Socialism: Utopian and Scientific as seeking ‘the ultimate cause and the great moving power of all important historic events in the economic development of… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Historical Materialism (journal) — Historical Materialism is an interdisciplinary journal published four times years. It is dedicated to exploring and developing the critical and explanatory potential of Marxist theory. The journal started as a project at the London School of… …   Wikipedia

  • historical materialism — A term applied by Karl Marx himself to his theory of society and history. ‘Historical’ entailed the analysis of how particular forms of society had come into existence, and the specific historical contexts within which apparently universal or… …   Dictionary of sociology

  • historical materialism — (in Marxist theory) the doctrine that all forms of social thought, as art or philosophy, and institutions, as the family or the state, develop as a superstructure founded on an economic base; that they reflect the character of economic relations… …   Universalium

  • historical materialism — histor′ical mate′rialism n. gov+pho the part of dialectical materialism dealing with historical process and social causation; the doctrine that social thought and institutions develop as a superstructure on an economic base • Etymology: 1920–25 …   From formal English to slang

  • historical materialism — noun Date: 1925 the Marxist theory of history and society that holds that ideas and social institutions develop only as the superstructure of a material economic base compare dialectical materialism …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • historical materialism — noun another term for dialectical materialism …   English new terms dictionary

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