90 



MATER A 



MATERIALISM 



a small quantity of the material, more pro|>erly 

 called I'.r/xi </' Mult. is put. and Uiiling water 

 U added : it is thru MMM round to those \vlm 

 are to partake of it, ami each. l>cing provided with 

 a small tulie about eight inches in length, with 

 a muall Imlh at one end, made either <n~ baaket- 

 work of wonderful linene** or of perforated metal, 

 to act as a strainer anil prc\ent tin- tine partieUi 

 from bring drawn up into the mouth, dips in this 

 in-tniment, \vhicli is called a ImmtiillH, and sucks 

 up a small ]Mirtion of the infusion, ami passes the 

 imitc howl <iii to the next person. It is usual to 

 drink it exceedingly hot. so much so a.s to lx> 

 extremely unpleasant to Europeans. Its oiled i~ 

 mm-h the same as tea, stimulating ami restorative; 

 and it derive* tins iirojierty from the presence of a 

 large proportion of the same principle which is 

 found in tea and coffee viz. Titcine, The collec- 

 tion and preparation of mate U a large industrial 

 occupation in Paraguay and Hrazil. 



Wut'ril a city nf the Italian province Potenza, 

 situated 87 mill's N\V. of Taranto. Ton. 1,">,700. 

 !! ic U the cathedral of the archbishopric of 

 Acerrnzaand Matera. There are numerous caverns 

 and stone <|nariies in the vicinity. 



Materialism is the theory of the world which 

 professes to find in matter '( monistic or philo- 

 sophical materialism), or in material entities 

 {atomistic materialism >. or in material qualities 

 and forces (scientific or physical materialism ), a 



complete explanation of all life and e\i-i. i 



whatsoever. Early philosophiesare generally either 

 thoigonies or cosmogonies. Coainogoniet tend to 

 postulate animated or living matter ( hylo/.oism ). 

 (lilt of the eailiest hylo/oistic philosn|>licmes of the 

 Ionic school in (ireece arose the atomistic material- 

 ism of I,cucippus and Demoeritns, explaining the 

 < i-mos as an aggregation and segregation of ultimate 

 indivisible malerial entities or atoms. The atomic 

 theory of Democritus liecamc the lias is of the 

 itionalistic psychology and ethic of Epicurus, 

 and was transmilted in the glowing verses of 

 Lucretius' great didactic |MM'|M, //. r,,r<nii \ntimi. 

 on to the later Komati period. Materialism as a 

 Wis for scientific research we lind revived in 

 lii-tory wherever a movement arose in favour of 

 the methods and aims of experimental or natural 

 nee, as in the Renaissance period in Enroi.c 

 generally. (Jassondi. though, it is who must be 

 regarded ax the renew cr /mr ...//./,, in modern 

 times, of systematic materialism. He developed 

 the diK-trine of Demon it us. by endowing the atoms 

 with force and even with sensation, I.amcttrie, 

 by his materialistic account of the functions of the 

 mind, prepared the way in Fiance for the com- 

 prehensive mateiialism of Huron Hnlhacli, whose 

 Sy< \iitin. is the </,,/,/,,///-,, -of I'rcnch 



materialism. In Holbach materialism reaches r. - 

 high water mark. Apply inn mateiialism to antlno 

 jiology, lie seeks to show that man is only a physical 

 iM-ing, and that morality or virtue is independent 

 of the supports of |M>siti\e religion ami of theism. 



Tl mpiiical method of llacon and I.ockc, taken 



along with some things I.iM-ke said aUuit mutter 

 liring |iossil,]v made to think, and eagerly caught up 

 by men like Voltaiie. had countenanced in England 

 a* well a* in France a materialistic treatment of the 

 mental and spiritual powers nf man, as in the works 

 of MoblMH.. Hartley, ami Priestley. In ( ierinany 

 philosophy wa in the mam idealistic and (.jH-cula- 



Ulltll the.leathof Hegel, l.llt \'og| alKillt IH.V) 



apidied the pririciph-s of materialism to |isychology, 

 holding that physiology pronounced deliiiitely and 

 c-Uogorimlly against the idea of individual im- 

 mortality, a indeed against all notions founded 

 on the idea of the indc|>eiidcnt existence of the 

 oul. Moleacliott and lluehncr are asiociated with 



as upholders of materialism. Ituchncr's h'nifl 



l-nie.' and Matter' i i- the llil.li- of t 

 man materialism. Eeuer'nach and Stiaiiss may IMJ 

 mentioned as philosophers w ho exchanged the spirit- 

 ualistic monism of Hegel for materialistic monism. 

 The form in which materialism now ap|M>ara 

 has been determined bv the doctrine of evolution. 

 Materialism indeed might lie said to have Keen 

 alisorU-d ill the wider theory of evolution, which 



Ix-vond the mere aiitilheisni or atheism of 

 materialism, and seeks /m.M//V<V</ to show how the 

 diversities anil differences in the world can be 

 accounted for by natural as opposed to supernatural 

 or creative process. Ilaeckel is perhaps the most 

 prominent upholder of the Darwinian hypothesis 

 on the Continent. 



Materialism may be examined from many points 

 of view. (1) Materialism is scientific realism. It 

 believes, i.e., in veal physical entities, such as atoms 

 anil forces, and spaces and times. Now a belief in 

 atoms leads, in physics, in chemistry, and in astro- 

 nomy, to insoluble contradictions : atoms, for ex- 

 ample, for physical purposes must be at once 

 absolutely impenetrable and unalterable, and yet 

 absolutely elastic and alterable. It would be more 

 conect, in fact, to reduce matter to forces than to 

 atoms. a.s many theorists have done. Hut it is 

 difficult to think of forces existing without some 

 sort of substrate. Spaces and times too are not 

 physical things. Thus science is full of hypotlie 

 nor can it dispense with hypotheses. Complete 

 physical realism or materialism is. in short, theo- 

 retically impossible. (2) Even granting which in 

 strictness we cannot the existence of mere matter.' 

 science 1ms as yet found insuperable difliciilty ill 

 passing from unorganised to organised matter. 



(3) Psychology has as yet been unable to regard 



organic states a- a< tinting for psychical or mental 



states. The two are totally dilierent. ami, though 

 correlated, cannot lie said to be causally connected. 



(4) Materialism cannot furnish a complete or con- 

 sistent ethical theory. If man i> entirely the pro- 

 duct of natural forces, and in fact the sport of 

 natural forces, it is meaningless to think or speak 

 of him as morally obliged either to follow or to 

 resist nature. Man not only follows and resi-ts 

 nature, but in mechanical and artistic construction 

 commands ami anticipates and surpasses nature. 

 Of course to materialism the belief in human free- 

 dom, which practically makes history, is an illusion, 

 but it is difficult to see how on the materialistic- 

 hypothesis even this illusory belief could lia\c 

 arisen. (5) Although materialistic evolution may 

 sm-.-eed in showing that we ought not to n ; 

 certain natural adaptations and productions as 

 special and final creations, it cannot and does ma 

 avoid the question of teleology. Neither hylo/.oism 



nor n lianism, nor unconscious selection and 



adaptation accounts for that relativity of everything 

 to everything, which is really what at bottom is 

 meant by teleology. There must be a world soul 

 or world thought for whom thcuni\- !i-cd 



end. (li) Then- is the philosophical iiiiestion aliont 

 mere matter. It has again ami again been confessed 

 by scientists as well as by philosophers that by- 

 matter can only, in the last resort, be meant 

 what .1. S. Mill calls the permanent possibility of 

 sensation. There is in fact no object i or object i\ e 

 thing) without a subject (or consciousness i. If 

 the materialist at once reply that there is no 

 subject without an object, he is in the righ' 

 against the thesis. The idealist, in short, and the. 

 materialist are in the right as against each other. 

 Subject and object imply each other. We cannot 

 ln-gin with either in order to explain from it the 

 other. 



Materialism brings prominently l>efore us that 

 side of the universe which is compassed by the 



