Materialism and Atheism

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Community for discussion for all aspects of materialism: materialist philosophy, theory, history, dialectical materialism, critiques of philosophical idealism, religion and so on.

Community is not only about philosophy. Memes, dunks, rants and shitposting are welcomed, as long as they are broadly relevant.

MATERIALISM:

Philosophical trend which emphasise the material world (the world outside of consciousness) as the foundation and determinant of thinking, especially in relation to the question of the origin of knowledge. For materialism, thoughts are “reflections” of matter, outside of Mind, which existed before and independently of thought.

IDEALISM:

Idealism is a thought process (ex. rationalism) of how the material world adheres to ideas. Idealists follow a certain ideal concept (ex. faith) and understand everything from its adherence to that concept.

Idealism can also be understood as the practice of understanding abstractions through other abstractions; where an abstraction is something that does not necessarily have basis nor relation to reality, but only exists in relation to other abstractions. The primary concern for the idealist is to create concepts that adequately explain (and change of viewpoint of) the world as we know it.

Idealism may reject the existence of the external world all altogether (the world beyond thought, beyond sensation) or assert that while a world beyond sensation may exist, it is unknowable. These trends are known as Subjective Idealism. On the other hand, idealism may accept the objectivity of nature but regard the material as the expression of ideal forces such as the Will of God, the absolute Idea, etc whose nature is accessible to the Mind directly. These trends are known as Objective Idealism.

Some basic reading:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm

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PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml

A Critique of Sam Harris' "The Moral Landscape" (www.youtube.com)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by davel@lemmygrad.ml to c/materialism@lemmygrad.ml

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Or: a materialist atheist pantses an idealist atheist.

For [Harris] the two things are the same: on the one hand objective moral truth (universal morality), and on the other hand scientific facts about what increases wellbeing and what doesn’t. […] I think the two things are very different from one another.

Just as religion is not something that depends on the existance of god, but is a specific social practice, a specific form of communication that relates to a certain unrealistic assumption; likewise morality is a specific discourse, a specific way of acting, that relates to and derives from making unrealistic assumptions about something that doesn’t exist.

Philosophy professor Hans-Georg Moeller, author of The Moral Fool: A Case for Amorality

Follow-up video: If Morality Exists Everything Is Permitted.

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[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I found YouTube links in your post. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

Link 1:

Link 2: