The Concept of Matter in the Typology of Philosophical Worldviews

The study defines the typology of philosophical worldviews, from naturalistic (various types of materialism and positivism) to pantheistic (naturalistic and mystical or panentheistic) and transcendent, underlying world religions and the corresponding philosophy. The last two types are classified by the authors as metaphysical or idealistic. It is noted that ancient thought is characterized not by materialism as such, which is a product of modern European thinking, but by hylozoism, which does not exclude spirituality. The materialistic is defined in the interpretation of G.V.F. Hegel, Vl. Soloviev, V. Zenkovsky, A. Losev and others as “metaphysical”, unreasonably attributing to itself “scientific nature”. Metaphysical concepts (idealistic ones – pantheism and transcendentism) do not deny the concept of matter, but along with it they also think of other principles, which allows developing dialectics and, based on contradictions, constructing reality in one way or another. While recognizing the Absolute, metaphysical concepts, however, think of it differently: pantheism in all its varieties faces the problem of substantiating freedom, morality and, ultimately, theodicy. Creationist transcendentism, especially in its personalistic (theistic) version, taking the Absolute beyond the limits of existence, turns out to be capable of constructing a theodicy, relying on the concept of free will as the source of evil. In this case, matter and the body turn out to be not a prison and a cage of the soul (as in Orphism, Pythagoreanism and Platonism), not a source or receptacle of evil (as in Neoplatonism), but a “co-worker” of the soul, for everything created is good. Not only the spirit, but also the body is sanctified. Thus, it is precisely in transcendentism that matter takes its worthy and necessary place. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.