The Waning of Materialism

A sustained and up-to-date critique of philosophical materialism (the thesis that all of reality consists of material particles and their physical relations and interactions), relying on recent scientific research and the most sophisticated tools of contemporary philosophy, undertaken by twenty-three of the world’s leading analytic philosophers. The case against materialism comprises arguments from conscious experience, rational thought, the interaction of mind and body, and the unity and persisting identity of human persons. The contributors develop a wide range of alternatives to the dominant materialist models that have dominated analytic philosophy until recently, including anti-materialist versions of naturalism, renewed forms of Aristotle’s account, theories of strongly emergent mental powers, and significant modifications of traditional dualism.