Other 'Materialsims'

Here, the Material Principle is 'Becoming-Diverse', so the defining characteristic of 'Matter' is its having become diverse. Hence, any inert 'stuff' does not qualify as Matter. So, for example, when Aristotle characterizes the bronze of a sculpture as its Matter, insofar as he means the multiplicity of the statue, the usage is acceptable here, but to whatever extent he regards bronze as inert stuff, it is not. Among pre-Socratic theories, insofar as Water or Fire are life-engendering, they qualify as Matter. Empedocles' 'Strife' is a Material Principle but the inert atoms that the latter acts upon are not Matter. Insofar as by 'Extension' Descartes means the active process of extending, that is a Material Principle. In Dialectics, the generating of an 'Antithesis' is a Material Principle. In fact, not only does the subsequent 'Synthesis', which unifies the opposites, qualify the entire process as Formaterial, because with respect to the original 'Thesis' it constitutes an increase in Complexity, it is also an Evolvement. However, this analysis applies to Dialectics in general, so the generation of the Antithesis in the Hegelian system is as much a Material Principle as it is in the Marxian one. In other words, its mere rejection of Hegelian spiritual stuff in favor of corporeality does not, from the perspective here, per se qualify Marxism as a 'Materialism'. On the other hand, one more recent notion that does qualify as a Material Principle is Gilles Deleuze's 'Difference', which actively differentiates. In general, inert stuff is actually Matter that has already achieved one Form or another.