Great quote

weedar

Member
"[T]he word material gains its meaning only by virtue of a binary, that is, in contrast to "non-material". Consider this binary in terms of material/spirit, for example. To say, "The cosmos is material", makes no sense unless you can distinguish it from what is spirit. Something identifiable as spirit must exist then, in order to say what material is. Yet, if spirit must exist in order to give material any meaning, then the cosmos cannot be altogether material. To put it another way, in the world-view of materialism, the spiritual world is marginalized (thrust into the unnoticed margins of the page). The spirit is an unspoken absence. However, without the presence of this absence, the very sense of "the cosmos is material" is destroyed. As one might say, the entire world-view of materialism rests on a suppression of the spirit." - (Kenneth Gergen, An Invitation to Social Construction, location 638, kindle edition)
 
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