Antimaterialist

Antimaterialist is a term used to describe a person or position that opposes materialism—the view that matter is the fundamental substance of reality or that all phenomena can be reduced to physical processes. In philosophy, antimaterialists typically defend forms of idealism, dualism, or other theories that grant primacy to mind, consciousness, or non-material realities. The label is not a formal school but a descriptive descriptor that is applied differently across traditions.

Historically, antimaterialist positions appear in various strands of thought. In ancient and medieval philosophy, Platonic and scholastic currents argued for realities beyond empirical matter. In modern philosophy, thinkers such as George Berkeley and certain Kantian or Hegelian lines have been described as antimaterialist for challenging naive materialism or the notion that matter exhausts reality. In religious and spiritual contexts, antimaterialism often underpins claims about the reality of the soul, God, or other immaterial aspects of existence.

In contemporary debates, antimaterialist perspectives can be found in some theories of mind that resist reductive physicalism, as well as in phenomenology, certain forms of idealism, and theology. Critics argue that antimaterialist positions lack empirically testable support and risk opposing well-supported scientific explanations. The term's usage remains varied and sometimes polemical, reflecting ongoing disagreements about what constitutes the most fundamental nature of reality.