1st Edition
Materialism A Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Preface
A Preliminary Disambiguation
Part 1: An Outline of the History of Materialism
1. The Heart of Materialism
2. Materialist Thought in the Ancient World
3. The Triumphs of Materialism: The Mechanical Philosophy, The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
4. Materialism in the Nineteenth Century
Part 2: The Evolution of Materialism into Physicalism
5. The Challenges to Materialism from post-Newtonian Physics
6. Physicalist Responses to the Problems of Materialism
7. The Heart of Physicalist Materialism
8. Physicalist Materialism in the Twenty-First Century.
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Robin Gordon Brown is a Research Associate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, UK.
James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Understanding Philosophy of Science (2002) and editor (with Alexander Bird) of Arguing About Science (2012), both published by Routledge.
"Highly recommended for those interested in materialism as a perennial current in the history of philosophy and for those wondering how contemporary physicalism and naturalism connect with older materialist philosophies and politics." - William Lewis, Skidmore College, USA
"Brown and Ladyman offer a clear exposition of philosophical materialism much needed in these muddle-headed times. Particularly refreshing is their stress on the essential incompleteness of the explanations it provides, which distinguish it as a scientific worldview from its more strictly 'philosophical' rivals." - Thomas Uebel, University of Manchester, UK
