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3 points

No you got that mixed up. Materialism (sometimes called neo-materialism) is well compatible with the constructivist arguments you are referring to.

It just says the world of ideas develops dialectical with the world of things and acts.

Idealists imagine ideas to have their own realm of existence with a mystical source of power, indepentend from said dialectic.

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2 points

In your example this means idealists think the worth of a coin comes from itself, while materialists ask for the social processes that this property “worth” emerges from. This would have to be analysed both economically and in termns of constructivism

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-1 points

Idealists imagine ideas to have their own realm of existence with a mystical source of power, indepentend from said dialectic.

No we don’t. We believe the supposed world of matter is a social construct created by people’s belief, and that dialectics occur within the mind. We believe the “material” world arises as a result of mental dialectics. Meanwhile, materialists believe that matter just popped into existence in its own for no reason, with no cause, and that all we experience is matter.

For example, take a trans woman who has not yet begun HRT. According to the materialist, her body’s male features are the true nature of reality, and our perceptions arise directly from her male body. The materialist refuses to bear any responsibility for perceiving her as male. Meanwhile, an idealist says that maleness is a social construct, and the true nature of this trans woman is her female identity. Her body is a visual symbol created by our minds and existing only within our minds. We bear responsibility for how we create this symbol. Perceiving her body as male is in most situations an act of violence. We have the choice to perceive her as female, and we should do so if that is her wish.

The way we perceive her body is informed by thousands of years of history of society, a dialectical process of causation intertwined with he patriarchy and the ideals of the enlightenment. A materialist denies all of this complexity and says that their perception of her body as male is objective truth, which simply appeared on its own with no social process informing its creation. They maintain the body is pure physics and their mind has no impact. This is irresponsible and dangerous.

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1 point

What you talk about is a mechanistic kind of materialism, basically the over the top variant in wich the other side of the dialectics get lost.

And yes, things came into existence for no reason and no cause. Big bang, evolution, emergence of culture. No reason, no plan, no mechanistic predictable process, no god, no teleological history. Just interplay of material and ideas.

“Male = objective” is idealist, since it doesnt understand the interplay of the politics of gender

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-1 points

Nonsense. Idealists believe the physical world, including anatomical sex, is an illusion created by our minds. No idealist would say maleness is objective. But a materialist would. Because materialists believe in physical matter.

You should check out http://soulism.net for a further analysis of why materialism is reactionary.

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