Materialism new and old

Bibliographic Data

ID2496773
AuthorsCharles T Wolfe (0000-0002-7956-9085, Ghent University, corresponding author), José Luis Anta Félez (0000-0001-7063-5288)
Year2017
Issue17
Publication date2017-07-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntropología Experimental (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1578-4282 • E-ISSN: 1695-9884
PublisherUniversidad de Jaen (PUBLISHER • ES)
DOI10.17561/rae.v0i17.3510
OpenAlexW2725317411
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited8

New materialism is not a clear-cut set of theses, or a firmly unified school of thought. It crosses discourses and theoretical commitments, but, as its name indicates, seems consistently to oppose 'new' materialism to an older form, or perhaps several older forms of this doctrine. The latter are typically associated with 'mechanistic' standpoints, with 'reductionism', with the denial of life, agency, embodiment, meaning, value ... What happens when a historian of materialism confronts such claims? In what follows, I reflect on the historical problems which affect such theoretical positionings. It is not that there is no need to distinguish passive from active forms of materialism, or single out a focus on organic life. But that a distinction between 'new and old' might not be the way to capture such crucial theoretical and historical features

Agency (philosophy · Cultural materialism (cultural studies · Denial · Doctrine · Epistemology · Materialism · Meaning (existential · Physicalism · Psychoanalysis · Reductionism · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Theology · Value (mathematics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology

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