What is scientific materialism?
Generally speaking, it is the world outlook of the advanced class, which reflects the interests of the advanced class for productivity and scientific development. Materialist philosophy is often an ideological weapon used by advanced social forces and progressive classes to oppose reactionary forces and religious superstitions, safeguard scientific development and promote social progress. Materialism holds that the world is material according to its essence; Matter is an objective reality that exists independently of people's consciousness or spirit, and consciousness is the reflection of the material world in the human brain. Materialism holds that matter comes first and spirit comes second. Idealism holds that spirit is the first and material is the second. The basic viewpoints of materialism, specifically, are: first, the world has matter first, then consciousness. Second, consciousness is a highly developed and organized substance-the function of the human brain, which is the reflection of the human brain on the material world. Third, consciousness is a reflection of the material world. All these arguments show that matter is the origin of the world, and it can exist independently without relying on spirit, so it is primary; Consciousness comes from matter and must depend on it to exist. There is no spirit that exists independently from matter in the world, so spirit is secondary. With the development of society, materialist philosophy has experienced three main stages: ancient naive materialism, mechanical materialism and dialectical materialism, namely Marxist philosophy. The fundamental view of materialism is to admit that the essence of the world is matter, there is matter before consciousness, matter determines consciousness, and consciousness is the reflection of matter. Contrary to materialism, the fundamental view of idealism is that the essence of the world is consciousness, not matter determines consciousness, but consciousness determines matter.