Materialism Through The Mind : Materialism

In the novel We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, the setting is described as a stately private island where all is perfect, and nothing goes wrong. As a result of this setting, conflicts arise in the Sinclair family pertaining to the topic of materialism. This setting is used by the author to communicate how broken the Sinclair family is. One of the memories that comes back to Cady is her mother and the aunties arguing about which house is going to be inherited by which daughter when her grandfather passes away. This argument tears the family apart without them realizing that all they are fighting over is material possessions. Another instance of materialism ruining their family is how adamant Cady's mother is about receiving the embroidered tablecloths

Materialism is a poison to society that prevents people from doing what is necessary for them. The novel, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer demonstrates this. The novel is centered on Chris McCandless. He was on his way to graduate from a well-known university. He decides to leave, donating his money and burning the rest. He went into the wilderness, living off the land. He demonstrates materialism by taking only what was on his back. Materialism is a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. The average person requires possession of physical objects in order to be content. Chris shows through his actions that having physical comfort is not needed to acquire satisfaction. In “Into

Transcendentalist author, Henry David Thoreau sees materialism as the destruction of society and one’s mind. He articulates this in Walden, “Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.” These strong views from Thoreau are not subject only to him, fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson shares similar views from Self-Reliance, “Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem for each other by what each has, and not by what each is.” These two influential thinkers agree that materialism is ruining civilization and free thinking.

There are conflicting views between philosophers of the modern era pertaining to the existence of God. Even further, many of these philosophers who share the opinion that God does in fact exist also have opposing views as to how that affects their world view. For example, Descartes’s narrator, in the fifth meditation comes to the conclusion, that God, an almighty benevolent being, is no deceiver, and holds all perfection. Within this system, the narrator attributes all things of the physical world to be material, although Descartes believes that some things are not of matter (i.e. soul or mind). Conversely, Berkeley, whom also is a believer of God’s existence, believes that there is no material world or sensible realm without mind. That through God, the sensible is excited within us and although he, like Descartes ' narrator, does not believe the Author of Our Creation deceives us. Thus even without matter, the regularities of our lives are no accident and have purpose. It is through analyzation of these two texts that I intend to find correlations and differences between Descartes ' and Berkeley 's epistemology in order to ascertain the difference in their world views of dualism (Descartes) and immaterialism (Berkeley), particularly pertaining to their belief in God.

The outcome of this case not only has an impact on the materiality of the coal mining community, the environment that surrounds the area, the coal companies themselves or the state of West Virginia, it affects the materiality of everyday life, my materiality. The decision shows that it is ok for people to get away with certain decision that they negatively impact others. The Bragg v. Robertson unfortunately has more than one example of that, from the DEP allowing seventy-five percent of West Virginia’s mines to operate without a valid permit which was in violation of state and federal law, all the way up to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals failing to understand the SMCRA and using protection under the Eleventh amendment to justify their reasoning.

The American Dream in the 1920s was presumed to be a time that anyone, no matter what gender or what social class you are born into, has the capability to gain wealth and climb your way up the social ladder. It was a time where riches and wealth became the priority of everyone, and your name in society meant whether you would have a journey to success or failure. Materialism was key in this time period. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses theme to show that the great American Dream has been corrupted by the desire for wealth.

Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn, is about how the main character Chris avoids his pain and problems by pursuing ultimate freedom and is eventually destroyed by his own ideals. The tensions between Chris and his parents, Chris and Jan and Chris and Ron are developed throughout the film to reveal the director’s purpose which is to emphasise the destructive nature of ultimate freedom.

Materialism in America is probably at its peak with all the advances in technology. Accordingly, the country has lost all its fundamental meanings that many have risk their lives for. The American dream is practically dead as it has been infected by gadgets. Too many citizens have been blinded by the curtain, as mentioned by Lunberg, as they see no point to go beyond it, an unknown life without technological devices. This modern culture is so emphasized that a once foreigner of America, Shanzeh Khurram, knew how significant brand name materials were to Americans only after a month stay in the states. Her declarations of American culture have a higher meaning than an American citizen since she was not born into this kind of culture. When an

The three responses to this longstanding issue in western philosophy include materialism, dualism and idealism. Materialism can be defined simply as the only things there are all material or physical things. Idealists believe that there are no material things; there are only minds, and thoughts and experiences. While dualists think that the mental and physical are deeply different in kind: thus the mental is at least not identical with the physical.

The debate between dualism and materialism has retained its relevance today even though most contemporary philosophers believe materialism to be true. This is in large part due to the implications that comes with both views. If dualism is true, this means that there are some things that science will never be able to explain because science only has the ability to explain the physical. Therefore, dualism does not correspond with a scientific worldview which indicates why most scientists and philosophers are reluctant to accept this view. On the other hand, if materialism is true the possibility of an

This type of reductionism is fundamental in the sciences – only material things can exist in a material world. “The Universe, that is, the whole masse of all things that are, is Corporeall, that is to say, Body; and hath the dimensions of Magnitude, namely, Length, Bredth, and Depth: also every part of Body, is likewise Body, and hath the like dimensions; and consequently every part of the Universe, is Body, and that which is not Body, is no part of the Universe.2

Since there is no integrated theory of materialism, ideas about the causes of materialism may be derived from a wide variety of theoretical and ethical perspectives. Generated as they are by different perspectives, the propositions laid down here are only loosely connected to each other and are, in some cases, contradictory.

The term materialism is known as a philosophy, and also an issue in our society. By definition, “materialism is the theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life” (Khan). This means that our society has a tendency to consider material items or money as more important than our spiritual values. Since youth, children have thought that having more stuff, or better stuff, is happiness. Everyone always wants to buy the latest device, or the newest trends, when they don’t really need it. According to DeAngelis, “Compared with Americans in 1957, today we own twice as many cars per person, eat out twice as often and enjoy endless other commodities

The concept of materiality provides a topic for continuing educational discussion that many firms across the country find essential to the development of their audit staff. Measuring and using materiality to obtain desired results during an audit becomes the responsibility of the staff member of a CPA firm. Partners and managers of a firm typically allow the staff member to use his/her judgment when applying this concept during the fieldwork of an audit. The overall success of an audit relies at least in part on the materiality concept; therefore, staff members’ continuing education on the concept becomes important and necessary. This report will define the term materiality, determine how to measure materiality, and

Materialism is, “the view that matter is the ultimate constituent of reality” (Velasquez 148). In other words Materialism says that only material things are real. Nothing else exists but matter; there is no spiritual aspect in life. The only thing that matters are things we can see and feel. Charvaka philosophers that believed in Materialism argued that, “Because all we know is what we can perceive with our senses, and because whatever we perceive with our senses is physical and material, it follows that all we can know is the material of physical world around us” (Velasquez 149). They say that if we cannot see it or we do not know that it exists then it must be wrong. If we cannot physically use our senses to acknowledge it then things like souls, gods, or other spiritual “realities “can’t be real.