Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.
- the philosophical theory that regards matter and its motions as constituting the universe, and all phenomena, including those of mind, as due to material agencies.
noun
- interest in and desire for money, possessions, etc, rather than spiritual or ethical values
- philosophy the monist doctrine that matter is the only reality and that the mind, the emotions, etc, are merely functions of itCompare idealism (def. 3), dualism (def. 2) See also identity theory
- ethics the rejection of any religious or supernatural account of things
1748, “philosophy that nothing exists except matter” (from French matérialisme); 1851 as “a way of life based entirely on consumer goods.” From material + ism.
In philosophy, the position that nothing exists except matter — things that can be measured or known through the senses. Materialists deny the existence of spirit, and they look for physical explanations for all phenomena. Thus, for example, they trace mental states to the brain or nervous system, rather than to the spirit or the soul. Marxism, because it sees human culture as the product of economic forces, is a materialist system of beliefs.