Richard Vitzthum

[ Author Bio ]

Philosophical Materialism (1996)

Vitzthum surveys the materialist philosophical systems of Lucretius, Baron d'Holbach, and Ludwig Buechner, then turns to a discussion of 20th century materialism. Before delving into the mind-brain problem, he outlines the "metascientific" assumptions of materialism, their atheistic implications, and what materialism entails about life and mind. A brief consideration of the ontological status of numbers and moral concepts turns to a discussion of the success of reductionism in contemporary science.