Materialism can refer to either the simple concern with the material world, as opposed to the intellectual or spiritual concepts, or to the theory that physical matter is all that there is. This theory is way more complex than a simple focus on material possessions. It shows that everything that is in the universe is made of matter, without any spiritual or intellectual existence. Materialism can also refer to a doctrine that material success and progress are the highest values in your life. This doctrine seems to be important in western society today. (Materialism) Materialism states that the only thing real is matter. The common sense view of materialism is if it is understandable to the mind. Reductionism means to break everything down to its simplest form. Materialism has to do with reductionism because if matter is the only real thing, you have to break down everything in the world to eventually get to just simply matter. Science also has to do with materialism. Scientists experiment on matter every day. In reality, without getting very critical, the only thing that is real is matter. Some people will tend to disagree that matter is the only real thing. For example, is this piece of paper real? If it is not real then how are you reading the words on it right now? Yes you could say that paper is made out of wood pulp and water, which is made out of stuff which is made out of more stuff and keep going with that until you get down to matter. But in reality, this piece of paper in fact is real. Yes it is made up of matter, but it is still real by itself. Another way to think about it is, is the mind just matter? If the mind was just matter how could everyone think of different things and be at different levels of education? The mind is a mainstream of matter and the mind is the brain. In the theory of Dualism, materialists think of the mind, idealists think of the brain. Everyone has their own ways of thinking of things such as that. Another aspect is
