Materialism and Consumerism

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Materialism In philosophy the theory of materialism holds that the only

thing that exists is matter;

that all things are composed of material and all phenomena(including consciousness) are the result of materialinteractions. In other words, matter is the only substance.

The theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value inlife.



…

"Father of Modern Philosophy"

The view is perhaps best

understood in its oppositionto the doctrines of immaterialsubstance applied to the mindhistorically, famously by René

Descartes. However, by itself materialism says nothingabout how material substanceshould be characterized. In

practice it is frequently assimilated to one variety of physicalism or another.



American philosopher and cognitiv e scientist

Materialism is often

associated with reductionism,according to which the objectsor phenomena individuated atone level of description, if

they are genuine, must beexplicable in terms of theobjects or phenomena at someother level of description — typically, a more general levelthan the reduced one.,according to Jerry Fodor.



History of materialism

In Ancient Indian philosophy, materialism

developed around 600 BCE with the works of AjitaKesakambali, Payasi, Kanada, and the proponentsof the Cārvāka school of philosophy. Kanada wasone of the early proponents of atomism - thought

their proofs of God and positing that theconsciousness was not material made them not tobe materialists. The atomic tradition was carriedforward by Buddhist atomism and the Jaina school.

Axial Age



History of materialism

Chinese Confucian philosopher whocontributed to one of the Hundred Schools of

Thought

Xun Zi developed a Confuciandoctrine oriented on realismand materialism in Ancient

China. Other notable Chinesematerialists of this timeinclude Yang Xiong and WangChong.



History of materialism Ancient Greek philosophers likeThales, Parmenides, Anaxagoras,Epicurus and Democritus prefigurelater materialists. The poem De

Rerum Natura by Lucretiusrecounts the mechanisticphilosophy of Democritus andEpicurus. According to this view, all

that exists is matter and void, andall phenomena are the result of different motions andconglomerations of base materialparticles called "atoms."



History of materialism De Rerum Natura providesmechanistic explanations forphenomena such as erosion,

evaporation, wind, and sound.Famous principles like"nothing can come fromnothing" and "nothing can

touch body but body" firstappeared in the works of Lucretius



History of materialismCommon Era

8th or 9th century Indianphilosopher

Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta(6th century CE) in his workTattvopaplavasimha ("the Upsetting of allprinciples") refuted the Nyaya Sutraepistemology. The materialistic Cārvākaphilosophy appears to have died out sometime after 1400 CE.

In early 12th-century al-Andalus, the Arabian philosopher, Ibn Tufail(Abubacer), wrote discussions onmaterialism in his philosophical novel,Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus

Autodidactus), while vaguely foreshadowing the idea of a historicalmaterialism.



History of materialismEuropeanEnlightenment

German philosopher known forhis atheistic pessimism

Schopenhauer wrote that "...materialism isthe philosophy of the subject who forgetsto take account of himself."He claimedthat an observing subject can only knowmaterial objects through the mediation of the brain and its particular organization.The way that the brain knows determinesthe way that material objects areexperienced.



History of materialismMarx's socialmaterialism

For Karl Marx, the base material of the world is social relations(and mainly class relations, e.g, between serfs and lord, or today,between employees and employer). As an expression of thesebasic social relations, all other ideologies form, including those of science, economics, law, morality, etc.

Karl Marx used the term to refer to a theoretical perspective thatholds the satisfaction of everyday economic needs is the primary reality in every epoch of history.

Materialism takes the position that society and reality originatefrom a set of simple economic acts which human beings carry outin order to provide the material necessities of food, shelter, andclothing.

Materialism takes as its starting point that before anything else,human beings must produce their everyday economic needsthrough their physical labor and practical productive activity.

This single economic act, Marx believed, gives rise to a system of social relations which include political, legal and religiousstructures of society



Religious and spiritual objections

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, materialism

denies the existence of both God and the soul.

It is therefore incompatible with most world religions

including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism.



Materialism linked to depression

and anger- study "Shaun Saunders, one of the authors of the report from the

University of Newcastle, Australia, said it came as nosurprise to discover that money can't buy you love. ...

Saunders explained that one source of depression amongdedicated consumers was the fact that the property they acquired tended to lose value quickly.

'If your self-worth is invested in what you own, as can bethe case in our market-driven society, then these thingsmay not hold their value for very long', he said."



Philosophical influence to Service The theory shows what Marx called a "coherence" in human

history, because of the fact that each generation inherits theproductive forces developed previously and in turn further

develops them before passing them on to the next generation.Further that this coherence increasingly involves more of humanity the more the productive forces develop and expand tobind people together in production and exchange.

This understanding counters the notion that human history issimply a series of accidents, either without any underlying causeor caused by supernatural beings or forces exerting their will onsociety. This posits that history is made as a result of strugglebetween different social classes rooted in the underlyingeconomic base.



Philosophical influence to

Education The kind of aggressive, unprincipled rat-race of

advertisement techniques the manufacturers adopt notonly corrupt minds but also, as several studies have pointed

out, a large number of murders, thefts and bank robberiesowe their inspiration to the kinds of things that are to beseen in the print and electronic media. TV has become a

very important source of generating violent and unhealthy tendencies among people.

Indeed, materialism is an example of an area where nursingneeds to stretch from its focus on the individual andexamine the wider impact of the phenomenon.



Philosophical influence to Research materialism started from a fundamental underlying

reality of human existence: that in order for humanbeings to survive and continue existence fromgeneration to generation, it is necessary for them toproduce and reproduce the material requirements of life, where productive forces refer to the means of production such as the tools, instruments, technology,

land, raw materials, and human knowledge andabilities in terms of using these means of production.



Consumerism Consumerism is the equation of

personal happiness with consumption and the purchaseof material possessions.

"The movement seeking to protect and inform consumersby requiring such practices as honest packaging andadvertising, product guarantees, and improved safety

standards.

or alternately "The theory that a progressively greaterconsumption of goods is economically beneficial.".



…

A great turn in consumerism arrived justbefore the Industrial Revolution. Whilebefore the norm had been the scarcity of

resources, The IndustrialRevolution created an unusual situation.

for the first time in history products wereavailable in outstanding quantities, at

outstandingly low prices, being thusavailable to virtually everyone. And sobegan the era of mass consumption, theonly era where the concept of consumerism is applicable.

Since consumerism began, variousindividuals and groups have consciously sought an alternative lifestyle, such as the"simple living", "eco-conscious", and"localvore"/"buy local“ movements.



…

Consumerism has strong links withthe Western world, but is in fact aninternational phenomenon. People

purchasing goods and consumingmaterials in excess of their basic needs is asold as the first civilizations.

As a general trend, regular consumers seek

to emulate those who are above them inthe social hierarchy. The poor strive toimitate the wealthy and the wealthy imitate celebrities and other icons. Thecelebrity endorsement of products can beseen as evidence of the desire of modern

consumers to purchase products partly orsolely to emulate people of higher socialstatus.

This purchasing behavior may co-exist inthe mind of a consumer with an image of oneself as being an individualist



Consumerism in the 21st century

The default Home screen of theiPhone 3GS shows most of theapplications provided by Apple.

Businesses have realized that wealthy consumers are the most attractive targetsfor marketing their products. The upperclass' tastes, lifestyles, and preferencestrickle down to become the standard

which all consumers seek to emulate. Thenot so wealthy consumers can “purchasesomething new that will speak of theirplace in the tradition of affluence”. A consumer can have the instant

gratification of purchasing an expensiveitem that will help improve their socialstatus.



Consumerism in the 21st century As a general trend, regular consumers seek to

emulate those who are above them in the socialhierarchy. The poor strive to imitate the wealthy and the wealthy imitate celebrities and other icons.

The celebrity endorsement of products can be seenas evidence of the desire of modern consumers to

purchase products partly or solely to emulatepeople of higher social status. This purchasingbehavior may co-exist in the mind of a consumer

with an image of oneself as being an individualist.



Philosophical influence to

Education and Service Beginning in the 1990s, the most frequent reason given

for attending college had changed to making a lot of money, outranking reasons such as becoming an

authority in a field or helping others in difficulty.

This statement directly correlates with the rise of consumerism, specifically the technological aspect. Atthis time compact disc players, digital media, personalcomputers, and cellular telephones all began to integrateinto the affluent moedern everyday lifestyle – “a shiftaway from values of community, spirituality, and integrity,and toward competition, materialism and disconnection.



Philosophical influence to Research Given that we all experience the same consumeristic culture, why

do some of us develop strongly materialistic values and othersdon't? A line of research suggests that insecurity--both financialand emotional--lies at the heart of consumeristic cravings.

Indeed, it's not money per se, but the striving for it, that's linkedto unhappiness.

"Research suggests that when people grow up in unfortunatesocial situations--where they're not treated very nicely by theirparents or when they experience poverty or even the threat of death,", "they become more materialistic as a way to adapt."

Indeed, consumerism is an example of an area where nursingneeds to stretch from its focus on the individual and examine the

wider impact of the phenomenon.



consumerism in the sense of "the theory that a progressively greater consumption of goods is economically beneficial","attachment to materialistic values or possessions", and

materialism as "the theory or doctrine that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest valuein life""the movement that seeks to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising,

product guarantees, and improved safety standards" * and "thetheory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything,including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained interms of physical phenomena"



References/Credits:Mary Midgley The Myths We Live By.

Dominique Urvoy, "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)", in Lawrence I. Conrad(1996), The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān, pp. 38-46, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004093001.

The World as Will and Representation, II, Ch. 1) Jonathan Wolff, Ph.D., ed. "Karl Marx". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford. Retrieved 2009-09-17.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materialism^ Veblen, Thorstein (1899): The Theory of the Leisure Class: an economic study of institutions, Dover Publications, Mineola, N.Y., 1994, ISBN

0-486-28062-4. (also available: Project Gutenberg e-text)^ "Consumerism". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Online. 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism

Materialism and Consumerism

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