Materialism
Etymology
From Latin "materia," "matter, stuff." As a doctrine it is ancient — Democritus and later Epicurus held that reality is only atoms and void — and was revived by Thomas Hobbes in the 1600s. The familiar everyday sense, “caring too much about money and possessions,” is a later, moralized offshoot of the same word.
noun · /muh-TEER-ee-uh-liz-um/
The philosophical view that everything that exists is ultimately physical matter, including mind, thought, and consciousness.
What it names
A handle for the stance underlying most modern science: that there is no ghostly extra ingredient, and even the mind is, at bottom, matter in motion.
Example
A thoroughgoing materialism led her to expect that every mental state would eventually map onto some physical process in the brain.
Related idea
Idealism is the mirror image, holding that reality is ultimately mental; materialism says matter is the bedrock and mind is what matter does.