MATERIALISM
Materialism is a philosophical viewpoint. Materialism has been developed in three age;
- Axial Age,
- Middle Age and
- Enlightenment Age.
According to materialists there is no anything that is metaphysical. Everything, even consciousness is a item. The theory of Materialism expresses that physical items are only or main reality.
Materialists asks those questions to humanity 'Where does reality come from? What is essential of the reality?' For Idealistic approach in philosophy, soul and consciousness is main of life. 'Item' is main for materialism.
The principles of Materialism;
- Information comes from owing to observations and experiences.
- Appearance, cannot be explained by God or Soul otherwise the 'item' of appearance can be ignored.
- Everything comes from items continued as a item.
In ancient China, Xun Zi (b.c.312-230) developed confucianism theory based on realism and materialism.
In the beginning of 12 century, Arabic philosopher Ibn-Tufayl wrote a novel named Hayy bin Yaqzan. It was about materialism thinking.
Schopenhauer refer from materialism as a 'philosophy that forget to regard itself'. According to Schopenhauer, 'consciousness and item (it means subject and object) is identical thing that saw/looked from different sides.