Physicalism..

[Art Vandelay]

I was reading that term materialism had been abandoned by the scientific milieu and replaced with the term physicalism. Has anyone else heard anything about this? It stated that the two are rather synonymous but that 'physicalism' has evolved with the physical sciences, which is why it is preferable.

[Brutus]

To many philosophers, 'materialism' is synonymous with 'physicalism'. However, materialists have historically held that everything is made of matter, but physics has shown that gravity, for example, is not made of matter in the traditional sense of "'an inert, senseless substance, in which extension, figure, and motion do actually subsist'… So it is tempting to use 'physicalism' to distance oneself from what seems a historically important but no longer scientifically relevant thesis of materialism, and related to this, to emphasize a connection to physics and the physical sciences."Therefore much of the generally philosophical discussion below on materialism may be relevant to physicalism.
----
From wiki, but it's better than nothing

[Rafiq]

I was reading that term materialism had been abandoned by the scientific milieu and replaced with the term physicalism. Has anyone else heard anything about this? It stated that the two are rather synonymous but that 'physicalism' has evolved with the physical sciences, which is why it is preferable.

This materialism has little to do with that of Marx's, both regarding HM and even DM

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I thought the term used was "naturalism/naturalistic". I've never heard of physicalism.

[The Jay]

I was reading that term materialism had been abandoned by the scientific milieu and replaced with the term physicalism. Has anyone else heard anything about this? It stated that the two are rather synonymous but that 'physicalism' has evolved with the physical sciences, which is why it is preferable.

I think that people just want to get away from the common interpretation of materialism as being synonymous with consumerism. Other than that I don't see the reason for the switch in vocabulary.

[ckaihatsu]

On a tangent, 'physicalism' might be interpreted to mean the same thing as 'physical culture' -- anything that puts one's attentions on the body, external physical events, and all resulting culture from the same.

[black magick hustla]

its just a fancy "updated" term for analytic philosophers that are materialist in spirit but argue that physics says there is more than "matter" in physical processes. it's related to specific debates about ontology that have very little to do with marx' social materialism imho

[Thirsty Crow]

its just a fancy "updated" term for analytic philosophers that are materialist in spirit but argue that physics says there is more than "matter" in physical processes. it's related to specific debates about ontology that have very little to do with marx' social materialism imho
Maybe those brave souls have ventured to guess that there's something out there which can be called energy :lol:

But yes, the object of this physicalism is definitely different than that of Marx's materialism, so this posturing with regard to Marx's materialist conception of history (and the subsequently constructed, codified canon of nonsense called dialectical materialism) comes off as ignorant at best.

[TaylorS]

It is just a terminology change to shut up the "Quantum Mechanics proves Materialism wrong, and my New Age snake oil or Religious BS right!" brigade.