In Defense of Matter
by Michael Ian Lomongo (1992/98)
“It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
- The Fox, in “The Little Prince,” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
We are all too familiar with this perennial problem in philosophy (and life): the contraposition between matter and spirit, body and soul. The materialist says that there is no need to postulate such a “thing” as spirit. There is nothing beyond matter: what you see is what you get. The idealist, on the other hand, in putting forth and emphasizing the importance and supremacy of the spirit, belittles matter. In this great war between matter and spirit, the dominance (at least, in literature) almost always goes in favor of the spirit, even if people’s lives seem to indicate the contrary. Since it is the spirit that gives life, good is associated with it. On the other hand, matter (crude matter, body, the “flesh”) is somehow seen as the source of evil, disgrace, bad luck, or imperfection.
Matter, then, has acquired (no thanks to philosophers) quite a bad reputation. And this is especially true in a lot of idealistic, intellectualist, metaphysical, and religious philosophies. The exaltation of the spirit in these philosophies is inevitably tied up with the denigration of matter. Such a derogatory outlook on matter has especially been influential when coupled with the belief in a Supreme Being who is regarded as a pure Spirit, and the belief in man’s way to perfection as that of an active emulation of this paragon of perfection — God. The more you distance yourself from matter, the more you become perfect and God-like, God being immaterial. This naturally translates, for the believer, into a fascination for “things” (pardon the expression) immaterial or spiritual and an attitude of condescension, if not a direct aversion, towards matter.