materiistit

Materiistit is the term used to describe adherents of materialism, a philosophical doctrine that holds matter as the fundamental substance of reality and that all phenomena, including mind, consciousness and social processes, arise from material interactions. Materialism stands in opposition to idealism, which treats ideas or consciousness as primary.

Philosophical variety within materialism ranges from scientific naturalism, which explains phenomena in terms of physical processes and empirical investigation, to historical and dialectical materialism, which emphasizes the role of material conditions and economic relations in shaping social structures and history. In this sense, materialism encompasses a spectrum from purely physical explanations to comprehensive frameworks for understanding society and history.

Historical development typically traces materialist ideas from ancient thinkers such as Democritus and Leucippus through early modern writers like Hobbes and, in many accounts, certain interpretations of Spinoza, to the nineteenth century with Ludwig Feuerbach and, more prominently, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist thought, in particular, developed historical and dialectical materialism as approaches to analyze capitalism, class relations, and social change, merging material explanations with theories of ideology and history.

In Finnish usage, materiistit is primarily a scholarly term found in philosophy and social theory contexts. It describes those who subscribe to materialist explanations of reality, including scientific naturalism and Marxist-inspired analyses, rather than referring to a distinct political movement. The term is typically used descriptively rather than to denote a formal organization.