materialism

[A379] In his discussion of the Fourth Paralogism, Kant opposes to Cartesian dualism about the soul materialism and pneumatism; Kant decries "psychologists" who take appearances as things in themselves and adopt either materialism (a materialist "admits into his system nothing but matter alone"), spiritualism ("admits only thinking beings"), or dualism.

The view that everything that actually exists is material, or physical. Many philosophers and scientists now use the terms `material' and `physical' interchangeably (for a version of physicalism distinct from materialism, see physicalism ). Characterized in this way, as a doctrine about what exists, materialism is an ontological, or a metaphysical, view; it is not just an epistemological view about how we know or just a semantic view about the meaning of terms.
&ltDiscussion &gt &ltReferences &gt J.D. Trout and Paul Moser

says religion is a purely psychological phenomenon. It is "the childlike condition of humanity." Consciousness of God is "self-consciousness, and knowledge of God is self-knowledge" (Feuerbach ). Also see New materialism ; and Dialectical materialism