Materialism (A mad world)

by dhw, Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 17:23 (4539 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Dhw: Materialism has two very different meanings, and I think it's wrong to equate them. One is greed for material wealth, and the other is the philosophical theory that matter is the only reality. -TONY: Here I think is another misunderstanding. I see the greed and lust for material wealth as a byproduct of the materialist philosophy. The reason I say that is because that philosophy engenders a sense of entitlement, separatism and fatalism. "If there is nothing more than this physical reality, and we are the most intelligent species, then we are able to do what ever we like, however we like, to produce the results that we desire." This does not mean that there are not materialist with morals or values any more than being a theist means you have them. It just means that that particular philosophy lends itself well to a particular type of mindset and worldview.-You don't need philosophical materialism to engender a sense of entitlement, separatism and fatalism. Some of the most terrible wars in history have been fought in the name of different immaterial gods. Calvinists believed that the acquisition of wealth was a sign of their particular God's favour. The slave trade, the pogroms, apartheid all found biblical support, and the Catholic Church must have come up with some philosophical way to justify its massive accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor ... not to mention its efforts to conceal its appalling record of child abuse....It's not philosophy that leads human beings to destroy one another, but the greed, selfishness, egotism, lust for power that all appear to be an integral part of human nature. -dhw: And so my plea is to keep human greed separate from philosophical explanations of life and the universe.-TONY: Greed is a function of thought that is shaped by a persons philosophy. Unfortunately my friend, they are not separate at all.-A person's "philosophy" of pursuing his own ends is not the same as the philosophical theory that the universe is composed solely of matter! Is there any evidence that the directors of oil/nuclear energy/logging/finance/arms-manufacturing/pharmaceutical companies etc. are all saying to themselves: "It's my belief that the universe is composed entirely of matter, I reject Cartesian dualism, and therefore I can destroy the environment, and kill as many people as I like"?
 
Dhw: As for maintaining balance, I expect each of us is convinced that his/her balance is just right ... whether theist, atheist or agnostic. And since none of our current contributors are fundamentalists, we may all be right. Some people can balance perfectly on one leg, whereas others need two!-TONY: Speaking for myself only, I am not convinced that my way is right, only that there is something fundamentally wrong with our current world view as a human race.-My point was that we all think we have a balanced view. I doubt if anyone ... theist, atheist or agnostic ... would dispute that the world is in a mess. But we as a human race do not have a world view ... we have lots and lots of different world views. Not one of them has yet succeeded in overcoming materialistic greed on such a scale that it can sort out the mess. The humanism of philosophical materialists could do it, as could a selection of moral precepts from some of the religions, but the root cause is human nature, and I don't think any philosophy has ever caused or can ever change that.