What is the definition of 'materialistic'?

Answer 1

Materialism is 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. The first detailed description of the philosophy occurs in the scientific-poem De Rerum Natura by Lucretius in his recounting of the mechanistic philosophy of Democritus. According to this view, all that exists is matter and void, and all phenomena are the result of different motions and conglomerations of base material particles called "atoms." De Rerum Natura provides remarkably insightful, mechanistic explanations for phenomena, like erosion, evaporation, wind, and sound, that would not become accepted for more than 1500 years. Famous principles like "nothing can come from nothing" and "nothing can touch body but body" first appeared in this most famous work of Lucretius. The view is perhaps best understood in its opposition to the doctrines of immaterial substance applied to the mind historically, and most famously by Ren� Descartes. However, by itself materialism says nothing about how material substance should be characterized. In practice it is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another. Materialism is sometimes allied with the methodological principle of reductionism, according to which the objects or phenomena individuated at one level of description, if they are genuine, must be explicable in terms of the objects or phenomena at some other level of description -- typically, a more general level than the reduced one. Non-reductive materialism explicitly rejects this notion, however, taking the material constitution of all particulars to be consistent with the existence of real objects, properties, or phenomena not explicable in the terms canonically used for the basic material constituents. Jerry Fodor influentially argues this view, according to which empirical laws and explanations in "special sciences" like psychology or geology are invisible from the perspective of, say, basic physics. A vigorous literature has grown up around the relation between these views. "Materialism" has also frequently been understood to designate an entire scientific, "rationalistic" world view, particularly by religious thinkers opposed to it and also by Marxists. It typically contrasts with dualism, phenomenalism, idealism, and vitalism. For Marxism, materialism is central to the "materialist conception of history", which centers on the empirical world of actual human activity (practice, including labor) and institutions created, reproduced, or destroyed by that activity. The definition of "matter" in modern philosophical materialism extends to all scientifically observable entities such as energy, forces, and the curvature of space. In this view, one might speak of the "material world". In common usage, we say someone is materialistic when they are primarily concerned with accumulating wealth and possessions. It's usually not a compliment.

1. Concerned with material wealth and possessions at the expense of

spiritual or intellectual values.

2. Having the belief that having money and possessions is the most important thing

in life.

3. Showing great or excessive regard for worldly concerns.

4. Having attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions

constitute the greatest good and highest value in life.

5. A bourgeois mentality concerned primarily with gaining money and the things that

money can buy.
Materialistic describes a person who is markedly more concerned with material things (such as money and possessions) rather than spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values; an adherent of materialism.