What are the views of ancient na ve materialism?

The basic characteristic of naïve materialism is the attempt to find the unity of natural phenomena with infinite diversity in some concrete tangible objects, in some special things. Naive materialism affirms the material origin and unity of the world, but due to the limitation of the level of understanding, it always regards a certain or some specific material forms as the material origin and unified material basis of the world.

For example, the ancient Greek Thales believed that all things were born from water and returned to water, and the ancient Chinese Five Elements Doctrine believed that metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are the five basic elements that generate all things. These are typical views of ancient naïve materialism. The atomism of Democritus and Epicurus in ancient Europe and the monism of qi in ancient China still belong to the category of naïve materialism, although to a certain extent they break through the limitations of reducing the origin of the world to one or some specific forms of matter.

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales believed that all things arise from water and return to water after various changes.

China's "Five Elements Theory" holds that the five substances of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, constitute the origin of the world.

The ancient Indian "Four Greats" theory believed that everything in the universe is composed of water, wind, earth, and fire.

These are all simple reflections of the materialist idea of the primacy of matter and the secondness of consciousness, and they are correct on the whole.

Moreover, naïve materialism is often combined with naïve dialectics.

Ancient Chinese materialism regarded the "Five Elements" as the origin of all things in the world, and also explained the connection and development of the world with the relationship between them of "mutual growth and mutual restraint".

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus used "fire" to illustrate the dialectical picture of the development of the world.

Ancient naïve materialism reduced the origin of the world to a specific "primordial substance".

Ancient naïve materialism is the "primordial matter" with material properties such as water, fire, air, and earth as the origin of the world, and recognizes that the world is composed of moving and changing matter, and that there are opposites, struggles, and mutual transformations between matter. Although it insists on explaining the natural world from itself and is progressive, it still has the defects of spontaneity, intuitiveness, and speculation.

An attempt is made to find the unity of natural phenomena with infinite diversity in some concrete tangible object or in something special. Naive materialism affirms the material origin and unity of the world, and due to the limitation of the level of understanding, it always regards a certain or specific material form as the material origin of the world and the material basis of unity.

Examples of doctrines

For example, Thales of ancient Greece believed that all things were born from water and returned to water, Heraclitus believed that the world is a living fire that burns eternally, and the ancient Chinese Five Elements Theory believed that gold, wood, water, fire, and earth are the five basic elements that generate all things. These are typical views of ancient naïve materialism. Although the ancient Chinese monism of qi broke through the limitations of reducing the origin of the world to a certain or some specific material forms to a certain extent, it still belonged to the category of naïve materialism.

China's Five Elements Theory, the Five Elements Theory is a philosophical thought created by the ancient people of China, and the names of the five substances in daily life refer to the five forms of movement of qi (different from the five materials): metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, as the basis for the changes of all things in the universe and various natural phenomena.

The "Four Greats" of ancient India believed that everything in the universe was made up of water, wind, earth, and fire.

Ancient Naive Materialism Examples:

1. Thales of ancient Greece believed that all things were born from water and returned to water.

2. Heraclitus believed that the world was a living fire that burned eternally.

3. During the Warring States Period, Xunzi believed that material, unified qi constituted all things in nature, and man was also a part of nature.

4. Fan Zhen of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period said when explaining the relationship between god and form: God is form, and form is god. If it is to exist in the form, the god will exist, and if the form is grateful, the god will be destroyed. It means that the body is the subject that produces the spirit, and the spirit is the role played by the body, and the role must not exist separately from the subject.

5. The ancient Chinese doctrine of the Five Elements believed that gold, wood, water, fire, and earth were the five basic elements that generated all things.

6. The atomic theory of Democritus and Epicurus in ancient Europe.

The difference between ancient naïve materialism and objective idealism is that the origin of the world is different.

Ancient naïve materialism is a philosophical doctrine that uses one or several specific forms of matter to explain the origin of the world. It denies that the world was created by God, and reduces the origin of the world to some specific material form or forms. For example, ancient Chinese materialists believed that everything in the universe was composed of a very subtle flowing substance called "qi", and that qi was the origin of the world, and proposed qi monism.

Objective idealism regards objective spirits (such as God, ideas, absolute spirits, etc.) as the master and origin of the world, and believes that the actual material world is only the externalization and manifestation of these objective spirits. For example, the "Reason" of Cheng Zhu Lixue in the Song Dynasty of China, the "Idea" of Plato in ancient Greece, and the "Absolute Concept" of Hegel in Germany.

The difference between materialism and idealism's perception of the world:

1.Matter and spirit who is the first nature. Materialism believes that matter is the ontology and spirit is the attribute; Idealism holds that spirit is the ontology and matter is the attribute.

2.Presence and consciousness. Materialism holds that existence comes first, and consciousness is derived; Idealism holds that consciousness comes first and matter is derived.

As follows:In ancient China, the representative view was the "Five Elements Theory", which believed that the connection and development of all things in the world could be explained by the "mutual growth and mutual restraint" of the five elements of "water, wood, fire, metal, and earth". In addition to this, there is Xunzi's "yin and yang" doctrine; Wang Fuzhi's "vitality" said, wait.

In ancient Greece, Thales defined water as the foundation of all things, while Heraclitus believed that fire was the foundation of all things. The crowning achievement of the ancient naïve materialist view of matter was Democritus' "Theory of Atomism". Atomism holds that everything in the world is produced by the irregular movement of indivisible, indestructible, and smallest "atoms" in the "void".

Although the idea of naïve materialism is correct in substance, it is the first of the three main stages in the history of the development of materialist philosophy, which plays a certain progressive role in history and has a major influence on the later development of materialism, but it is limited by the limitations of history and class and the level of scientific knowledge.

It is still sensual, intuitive in nature, lacking in scientific argumentation, and still idealistic in explaining socio-historical phenomena. Therefore, it could not resist the speculative attack of idealism and metaphysics later. Only dialectical materialism can completely overcome its defects and test the truth in practice, thus dealing a fatal blow to idealism and metaphysics.

1.Ancient naïve materialism.

Naive materialism is also known as "naïve materialism". A philosophical doctrine that explains the origin of the world in terms of one or more specific forms of matter. The initial historical form of the development of materialism.

It denies that the world was created by God, and reduces the origin of the world to some specific material form or forms, in an attempt to find the unity of natural phenomena with infinite diversity.

2.Modern metaphysical materialism.

Modern metaphysical materialism enriches and develops materialism on the basis of summarizing the achievements of natural science. However, it reduces matter to atoms in the sense of natural science, and believes that atoms are the origin of the world, and the properties of atoms are the properties of matter, so they have limitations such as mechanical, metaphysical, and idealistic in the view of history.

3.Modern dialectical materialism.

Dialectical materialism (i.e., modern materialism) is a logical and theoretical thinking form of systematic science founded by Marx and Engels on the basis of summarizing natural science, social science and thinking science, --- the rational kernel of Hegel's dialectics and the 'basic kernel' of Feuerbach's materialism by Marx and Engels critically absorbing the German classical philosophy.