Editing Materialism (section)

==Defining "matter"==
The nature and definition of ''matter''—like other key concepts in science and philosophy—have occasioned much debate:<ref>{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Matter}}</ref>

* Is there a single kind of matter (''[[hyle]]'') that everything is made of, or are there multiple kinds?
* Is matter a continuous substance capable of expressing multiple forms (''[[hylomorphism]]'')<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9041771 "Hylomorphism"] ''Concise Britannica''</ref> or a number of discrete, unchanging constituents ([[atomism]])?<ref>[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-21 "Atomism: Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909182942/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-21 |date=9 September 2006 }} ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''<br />[https://web.archive.org/web/20050305082323/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-22 "Atomism in the Seventeenth Century"] ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''
<br />[http://people.umass.edu/schaffer/papers/Fundamental.pdf Article by a philosopher who opposes atomism]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061221163403/http://people.umass.edu/schaffer/papers/Fundamental.pdf |date=21 December 2006 }}
<br />[http://www.abstractatom.com/buddhist_atomism_and_the_r_theory_of_time.htm Information on Buddhist atomism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216202614/http://www.abstractatom.com/buddhist_atomism_and_the_r_theory_of_time.htm |date=16 February 2007 }}
<br />[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democritus/ Article on traditional Greek atomism]
<br />[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-modern/ "Atomism from the 17th to the 20th Century"] ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''</ref>
* Does matter have intrinsic properties (''[[substance theory]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance/ |title=''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' on substance theory |publisher=Plato.stanford.edu |access-date=2013-06-24}}</ref> or lack them (''[[prima materia]]'')?

One challenge to the conventional concept of matter as tangible "stuff" came with the rise of [[field physics]] in the 19th century. [[Special relativity|Relativity]] shows that matter and energy (including the spatially distributed energy of fields) are interchangeable. This enables the ontological view that energy is ''prima materia'' and matter is one of its forms. In contrast, the [[Standard Model]] of particle physics uses [[quantum field theory]] to describe all interactions. On this view it could be said that fields are ''prima materia'' and the energy is a property of the field.<ref>{{Cite arXiv |title=Cornell University | eprint=2211.14636 | author1=José Ignacio Illana | author2=Alejandro Jiménez Cano | date=2022 | class=hep-ph }}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

According to the dominant cosmological model, the [[Lambda-CDM model]], less than 5% of the universe's energy density is made up of the "matter" the Standard Model describes, and most of the universe is composed of [[dark matter]] and [[dark energy]], with little agreement among scientists about what these are made of.<ref>Bernard Sadoulet "Particle Dark Matter in the Universe: At the Brink of Discovery?" ''Science'' 5 January 2007: Vol. 315. no. 5808, pp. 61 - 63</ref>

With the advent of quantum physics, some scientists believed the concept of matter had merely changed, while others believed the conventional position could no longer be maintained. [[Werner Heisenberg]] said: "The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct 'actuality' of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible...atoms are not things."<ref>Heisenberg, Werner. 1962. ''Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science''.</ref>

The concept of matter has changed in response to new scientific discoveries. Thus materialism has no definite content independent of the particular theory of matter on which it is based. According to [[Noam Chomsky]], any [[property (philosophy)|property]] can be considered material, if one defines matter such that it has that property.<ref name="Chomsky, Noam 2000">[[Chomsky, Noam]]. 2000. ''New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind''</ref>

The [[Gustavo Bueno#Philosophical Materialism|philosophical materialist]] [[Gustavo Bueno]] uses a more precise term than ''matter'', the ''stroma.''<ref>{{Citation|title=Gustavo Bueno, Estroma| date=22 May 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiY1rfMk2T0|language=en|access-date=2021-12-28}}</ref>

In [[Materialism and Empirio-criticism|''Materialism and Empirio-Criticism'']], Lenin argues that the truth of [[dialectical materialism]] is unrelated to any particular understanding of matter. To him, such changes actually confirm the dialectical form of materialism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lenin |first=Vladimir |title=Materialism and Empirio-Criticism |publisher=International Publishers |year=1927 |isbn=9780717802777 |location=New York |publication-date=2022 |pages=265–272 |language=English}}</ref>