#Epicurus, the precursor to #Lucretius in the #materialist #philosophical tradition, believed that we need knowledge only because without it we are unhappy. I find it wonderful that following one's curiosity to bring oneself #joy is fundamental to the roots of the Western philosophical tradition that led to #science.

Our colleague @sbockmeyer together with @StefanSchreiber and Sabine Neumann is organising a conference on »Looking at Things Differently - New #Materialist Approaches in #Archaeology«. In case you have missed the CfP so far—send your abstract to newmaterialism@posteo.de until 31 December!
The conference is a cooperation between the #LEIZA, the #AGTiDA the Marburg Centrum Antike Welt and us. It will be in Mainz, 20-21 March 2025. For more information go to https://www.agtida.de/category/tagungen/call-for-papers/
@archaeodons

@cjpaloma Many in #materialist #capitalist #societies have lost sight of the #Mazlov #hierarchy of #needs. Some are duped by the #hex of #consumer #propaganda, some are just not aware & the #elite few positively revel in living #life at the #expense of #others ✊🏽

An interview with the creators of ‘Literally No Place’, Daniel Felstead and Jenn Leung, is available here:

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61186/1/the-film-starring-ai-julia-fox-deliver-a-sermon-about-ai-utopian-doomerism

'“Our side quest was to try and offer a different perspective on #ai one that doesn't treat it as, like, some kind of saviour or looming apocalypse,” they explain. “We wanted to present AI as this, like, twisted reflection of our present moment, in all its unhinged, horrific, and glorious wonder.”

They cite Kate Crawford's #AtlasofAI as an influence. For a different (less zombie #materialist) take on AI and Crawford's book, see here:

http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2024/3/4/30-second-book-review-no1-kate-crawford-atlas-of-ai.html

🎬 Here's how I'm selling my film newsletter now. I think this will work.

http://bowbrick.substack.com

(to be clear, no one's ever called me the suburban Žižek - this is more of an aspiration).

#GROSS #FilmReview #politics #materialist #CinemaHistory

«Η #υλιστική αντίληψη της ιστορίας ξεκινά από την πρόταση ότι η παραγωγή των μέσων για την υποστήριξη της ανθρώπινης ζωής και, δίπλα στην παραγωγή, η ανταλλαγή των παραγόμενων πραγμάτων, είναι η βάση κάθε κοινωνικής δομής' ότι σε κάθε κοινωνία που έχει εμφανιστεί στην ιστορία, ο τρόπος με τον οποίο διανέμεται ο πλούτος και η κοινωνία χωρίζεται σε τάξεις εξαρτάται από το τι παράγεται, πώς παράγεται και πώς ανταλλάσσονται τα προϊόντα».

“The #materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged.”

― Friedrich #Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Truly #materialist people aren’t money oriented, they love quality things, not turning the earth to crap. The #techbro bourgeois are the worst kind of greedy. Space travel? Crypto? Internet privacy transgressions? And the politicians roll over for them cause they’re money-oriented materialists too.

Dean Dettloff (#Marxist #Christian, https://deandettloff.com/) writes in response to having just watched the #Hillsong #documentary. He calls for a #materialist critique of #Evangelicalism.

I agree. It would be a valuable project in more ways than one.

Screengrabs below from the birdsite. (apologies if that offends :blobaww:)

All my homies dismiss #idealism. #Materialist gang rise up

The Second Thought YouTube channel continues to be one of the best resources for examining our society from a materialist perspective.

#SecondThought #leftist #materialist #socialist #socialism #CulturalCritique #politics #economics
https://www.youtube.com/c/SecondThought/videos

A story published in EXPLORE: The Journal of Science & Healing recounts the Near-Death Experience (#NDE) of Bettina Peyton a now-retired doctor.
Dr Peyton’s NDE occurred in 1988 when she was 32 years old and working at Tufts New England #Medical Centre in the US.
Prior to her experience Dr Peyton had no belief in life after #death and considered herself a “strident #materialist”.

#consciousness #nearDeathExperience #philosophy #medMastodon

https://deathpoints.com/2023/02/19/dr-bettina-peyton/

It’s a important to remember the immaterial bases of #fascism. #WilhelmReich watched the rise of Nazism in real time, and #socialist attempts to counter it. The experience convinced him a purely #materialist opposition wasn’t enough. Understanding of the psychopathologies underpinning the orientations is vital, and developing strategies to address them. The challenge is magnified in an era of instant mass communication. But Reich’s lessons remain valuable.

#introduction

I'm a #Marxist #Feminist revolutionary activist woman and #philosopher working on constructing a #dialectical #materialist #Feminist theory. I'm a researcher and activist on how capitalist patriarchal Junta dictatorships abused Leftist women political prisoners, and I have dedicated myself to exposing and learning from these crimes of capitalist #misogyny. I work to raised awareness for the victims of patriarchal violence both past and present. #Feminism #Philosophy #History

"A century of #agnosticism about the true #natureofmatter hasn’t found its way deeply enough into other fields, where #materialism still appears to be the most sensible way of dealing with the world and, most of all, with the #mind.

Some #neuroscientists think that they’re being precise and grounded by holding tightly to #materialist credentials… But this conviction is out of step with what we #physicists know about the #materialworld."

#nondualism #consciousness

https://aeon.co/essays/materialism-alone-cannot-explain-the-riddle-of-consciousness