Why “materialist” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
Upvoted for the clear distinction and elucidation of the categories, but... I have to disagree that a materialist or physicalist philosophical position is inherently dehumanizin…
by reverius42 · Sep 21, 2026
At a general level, PE (and really much of capitalism generally) is built around the idea that financial efficiency should be the guiding principle re: capital allocation, so th…
by joshjkim · Sep 21, 2026
A materialist might imagine consciousness is made up of constituent parts, like the organs of perception and the cells that make up those organs. So perhaps you are a constituen…
by jchook · Sep 18, 2026
You're right. Postmodernism isn't a relevant philosophical movement since the 80s at best (some would argue it wasn't a movement at all, just a term used by simple minds to join…
by orwin · Sep 18, 2026
I'm a materialist and man your opinion is going to give materialists a bad name. It is easy to jump from "rabbits are not conscious" to "rabbits can't suffer" to "it is OK to sk…
by tasty_freeze · Sep 18, 2026
Commenting without reading the article, as is tradition, since it requires logging in to read. I don't think this follows. We have no idea how consciousness happens. We can't ev…
by wat10000 · Sep 18, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "materialist" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "materialist" over time.
In philosophy and metaphysics, materialism is a form of monism holding that matter is the fundamental substance of nature, so that all things, including mind and consciousness, arise from material interactions and depend on physical processes, including those of the human brain and nervous system. It contrasts with monistic idealism, which treats consciousness as fundamental, and is related to naturalism, the view that only natural laws and forces operate in the universe, and to physicalism, the view that all that exists is ultimately physical. Physicalism extends materialism by including forms of physicality beyond ordinary matter, and some use the terms interchangeably. Read more on Wikipedia