What type of materialist are you?

[Ahknaton]

From this thread:

http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=80877

Originally Posted by Errigal

He [Derbyshire] is a prosaic materialist rather than a bling-bling materialist.

Kind of interesting when I think about these two different types of materialism. A person can be both, one type or neither:

1) A monk = no bling-bling, not worldly 0/2

2) African warlord = heavy bling-bling, heavy belief in the other worldy, the magical and spiritual 1/2

3) Derbyshire type Englishman of science = almost no bling-bling, almost exclusively interested in the practical, the physical, the testable, the profitable 1/2

4) Wall Street, City of London type = into bling, into the physical, testable and profitable. 2/2

The two types of materialism are:

1) Philosophical materialism: whether you reject or are generally unconcerned with belief in God or any kind of spiritual reality
2) Consumerist materialism: whether acquiring material wealth is important to you

To work out what type you are, start with 1 and add 2 if you are a philosophical materialist and then add 1 if you are a consumerist materialist.

Multiple choice is allowed but please do not tick more than 2 options (i.e. you only get to be ambivalent about one of the two types of materialism but not both).

[Errigal]

I'd say I was raised to be a secular version of Type 1 but without the monastic business of making a show of plainness or of avoiding life's little pleasures. One problem though is often the better clothes and things can be more expensive and the cheaper stuff is often more garish and flashy than the more expensive option. So sometimes it can be hard to say what's being flashy and what isn't.

[Ahknaton]

I think I'm a combination of type 1 and type 3, and type 3 probably dominates. On an intellectual level I do think there is reason to believe in some kind of transcendent non-material reality, but aside from a few rare moments I don't really "feel" it, and my general life decisions and the ingrained habits of my personality tend towards type 3, although at the moment I'm trying to change that. I'm confident I'm not a type 2 or type 4, I've made several choices that came at the cost of missed opportunities for easy wealth acquisition.

[harjit]

I would say 3, I live fairly simply but do sometimes splurge on things. I may be a number 4 in some aspects.

[Errigal]

Madonna and similar Hollywood spiritualists are Type 2. Type 3 is generally considered the thing to be in the Anglosphere but a lot of people are really Type 4s. Our Jews seem to be much more Type 2s than they'd like to admit.

[Ash]

I took option 1 with a side helping of 2 - because my belief in the 'otherworld' has been unwavering throughout my life, and I am mostly disposed toward a gnostic disdain for material possessions, but I can't claim any great ascetic virtue in that respect either. I am afflicted by the world of matter and its vanities like anyone else.

[Ash]

I believe the tendency to philosophical materialism or nonmaterialism corresponds to Jungian cognitive functions, i.e. whether the Sensing or Intuitive cognitive function is dominant. Dominant Sensors live in a world of plain facts and are mostly unconscious of the connections, possibilities and patterns suggested by them; dominant Intuitives inhabit a world of mental connections, possibilities and patterns while being more or less unconscious of the facts themselves.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Man of Ash

I believe the tendency to philosophical materialism or nonmaterialism corresponds to Jungian cognitive functions, i.e. whether the Sensing or Intuitive cognitive function is dominant. Dominant Sensors live in a world of plain facts and are mostly unconscious of the connections, possibilities and patterns suggested by them; dominant Intuitives inhabit a world of mental connections, possibilities and patterns while being more or less unconscious of the facts themselves.

The "trousered apes" of C.S. Lewis' Abolition of Man, "the mere trousered ape who has never been able to conceive the Atlantic as anything more than so many million tons of cold salt water."
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine...olition1.htm#1

[Ash]

Originally Posted by Errigal

The "trousered apes" of C.S. Lewis' Abolition of Man, "the mere trousered ape who has never been able to conceive the Atlantic as anything more than so many million tons of cold salt water."
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine...olition1.htm#1

Yes, that is how Intuitives see Sensors.

[Charlie Robespierre]

Yeah, one with a twist of two. When I hear people speak of reports and polls and such things, I typically roll my eyes and zone out.