Materialism

[Brutus]

I need to learn more about materialism, as at the moment my knowledge on the subject is elementary at best. I've heard that Plekhanov is a good source. If any of you could recommend articles, books, pamphlets, etc. on materialism, historical materialism or dialectical materialism I would be grateful.

[The Feral Underclass]

The German Ideology (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/) would be an essential book to head towards.

I stole these suggestions from another website and haven't read them myself, but they come highly recommended. I also don't know very much about the authors, except that Richard Vitzthum is associated with infidels.org and has an essay on their website: Philosophical Materialism (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_vitzthum/materialism.html)

Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition, Richard C. Vitzthum (1995)

A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism, Andrew Melnyk (2003)

After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency, Quentin Meillassoux (2008)

[Paul Cockshott]

Read Lenin's Materialism and Empirocriticism. For recent Materialists read the Australian school people like Huw Price or J Smart

[The Feral Underclass]

What is Historical Materialism? (http://www.marxist.com/historical-materialism-study-guide.htm) on the IMT website...lols

Materialism and Empirio-criticism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mec/) by Lenin.

[Leo]

On the Dialectical Method (http://libcom.org/library/dialectical-method-amadeo-bordiga)by Bordiga.

[Hit The North]

Essays on Historical Materialism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/labriola/index.htm) by Antonio Labriola.

[TheIrrationalist]

If your looking to read about materialist metaphysics in general there is always the Enlightenment thinkers. Baron d'Holbach, Diderot, de La Mettrie, and who I like the best Jean Meslier. Jean Meslier was a priest for his whole life, but after his death a testament was found, where he denounces religion and idealism. He has been called a proto-communist for his advocacy of common ownership and attacks against social injustices, and he also gave us this quote:

And [with] the guts of the last priest let's strangle the neck of the last king.
Which has been turned into:

Humanity won't be happy till the last capitalist is hung with the guts of the last bureaucrat!
I don't myself find the Enlightenment thinkers that useful as they are inclined to see the world as a mechanism, working like a clockwork. If you want to go even further you might find some of the ancient Greek thinkers interesting, Democritus, to name one. They might be interesting (at least I find them interesting) for research purposes on materialist philosophy and its history, but as usual with all metaphysical ramblings they don't count much.

[BIXX]

The German Ideology (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/) would be an essential book to head towards.

I stole these suggestions from another website and haven't read them myself, but they come highly recommended. I also don't know very much about the authors, except that Richard Vitzthum is associated with infidels.org and has an essay on their website: Philosophical Materialism (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_vitzthum/materialism.html)

Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition, Richard C. Vitzthum (1995)

A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism, Andrew Melnyk (2003)

After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency, Quentin Meillassoux (2008)

Does The German Ideology explain dialectical materialism? Also, would it be better to learn about dialectics, then historical materialism, then dialectical materialism?

[The Feral Underclass]

The German Ideology is mostly a statement on the materialist conception of history.