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Scientific Materialism

  • Book
  • © 1981

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mario Bunge

    1. Foundations and Philosophy of Science Unit, McGill University, Canada

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Part of the book series: Episteme (EPIS, volume 9)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. Being

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Matter Today

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 3-16

    3. Materialism Today

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 17-31

  3. Becoming

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33
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    2. Modes of Becoming

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 35-40

    3. A Critique of Dialectics

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 41-63

  4. Mind

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 65-65
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    2. A Materialist Theory of Mind

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 67-89

    3. Mind Evolving

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 91-105

  5. Culture

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107
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    2. A Materialist Concept of Culture

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 109-135

    3. Popper’s Unworldly World 3

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 137-157

  6. Concept

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-159
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    2. The Status of Concepts

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 161-174

    3. Logic, Semantics, and Ontology

      • Mario Bunge
      Pages 175-192

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 193-219
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Keywords

About this book

The word 'materialism' is ambiguous: it designates a moral doc­ trine as well as a philosophy and, indeed, an entire world view. Moral materialism is identical with hedonism, or the doctrine that humans should pursue only their own pleasure. Philosophical ma­ terialismis the view that the real worId is composed exclusively of material things. The two doctrines are logically independent: hedonism is consistent with immaterialism, and materialism is compatible with high minded morals. We shall be concerned ex­ c1usively with philosophical materialism. And we shall not confuse it with realism, or the epistemological doctrine that knowIedge, or at any rate scientific knowledge, attempts to represent reality. Philosophical materialism is not a recent fad and it is not a solid block: it is as old as philosophy and it has gone through six quite different stages. The first was ancient materialism, centered around Greek and Indian atomism. The second was the revival of the first during the 17th century. The third was 18th century ma­ terialism, partly derived from one side of Descartes' ambiguous legacy. The fourth was the mid-19th century "scientific" material­ ism, which flourished mainly in Germany and England, and was tied to the upsurge of chemistry and biology. The fifth was dialec­ tical and historical materialism, which accompanied the consolida­ tion of the socialist ideology. And the sixth or current stage, evolved mainly by Australian and American philosophers, is aca­ demic and nonpartisan but otherwise very heterogeneous. Ancient materialism was thoroughly mechanistic.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Foundations and Philosophy of Science Unit, McGill University, Canada

    Mario Bunge

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Scientific Materialism

  • Authors: Mario Bunge

  • Series Title: Episteme

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8517-9

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1981

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-1304-9Published: 31 August 1981

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-009-8519-3Published: 03 November 2011

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-8517-9Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 223

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science

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