Terry Eagleton, known for his incisive writings on an array of subjects in literature, philosophy, theology, and critical theory, here deals with materialism as a philosophical concept and a lived reality. His interest, he argues, is in “forms of materialism which are in some broad sense social or political,” in contradistinction to what he regards as technical or scientific accounts (1). Eagleton thus concerns himself particularly with philosophy and philosophers, engaging theology and religion primarily insofar as they come under the purview of philosophical scrutiny or dismissal.
The book consists of five chapters connected by the overall analysis of materialism but distinct in themes and interlocutors treated. The first chapter discusses different kinds of materialisms. Eagleton gives a positive account of materialism insofar as it fosters a kind of humility and solidarity with the natural world (5–6). Historical and dialectical materialism come in for a critical but largely sympathetic analysis; the “New Materialism” of Derrida, Deleuze, and other postmodernists, on the other hand, is subject to a stronger critique. Eagleton closes the analysis with a sympathetic treatment of Paul and Augustine on “the flesh,” in dialogue with Freud and Wittgenstein, through the affirmation that “the human subject emerges from a failure to be identical with itself” (27). For Eagleton, then, these thinkers who have been accused of dualism were instead posing fundamental problems of human existence.
Both the second and third chapters of the book deal with materialism and the body. Eagleton affirms an essentially Aristotelian hylomorphism (sketched out in dialogue with other thinkers, including Merleau-Ponty, Nancy, MacIntyre, and Wittgenstein) over and against various forms of soul-body dualism—as he puts it, “Human identity is a corporeal affair” (45). This idea has ethical, political, and aesthetic implications. The third chapter tests this idea out on Marx, particularly his idea of historical materialism. Eagleton appreciates the materialist belief that nature “is both prior to and independent of human affairs,” and he credits Marx for wrestling with the relationship of nature and human history (73). In this vein, Eagleton sketches the relationship of capital to materiality, arguing that it is “both grossly materialistic and spookily dematerialising” (96). This broadly socialist critique of capitalism and contemporary society is, along with the defense of materialism as defined in the first two chapters, one of the consistent threads running throughout the book.
Eagleton's fourth and fifth chapters are focused explorations of Marx and Nietzsche, on the one hand, and Wittgenstein, on the other. The fourth chapter also engages with Freud. Eagleton reads Nietzsche as a dangerous thinker, a kind of dark mirror image of leftist thinking. Ultimately, he argues that Nietzsche's opposition of life and morality comes up short, and he opposes Marx's vision to it as flawed (particularly in practice) but in the end more constructive and less selfish (118–19). The final chapter on Wittgenstein focuses particularly on his account of practice as filling in the meanings of words and concepts. Eagleton contrasts him with Nietzsche through his conservatism with regard to everyday life. While his account is not uncritical, Eagleton pairs Wittgenstein with Marx and Freud as pursuing philosophical theories that if put into practice would bring about the extinction of philosophy and psychoanalysis (145). The book ends somewhat abruptly with the conclusion of the chapter on Wittgenstein. Rather than trying to synthesize discussion in the individual chapters into a broader vision at the end, Eagleton lets the chapters speak for themselves and with one another as an account of materialism.
The great strength of Eagleton's work here as elsewhere is his honest and painstaking treatment of a variety of thinkers under the umbrella of materialism. Eagleton's ethical and economic commitments are clear, but he freely critiques individual philosophical systems. More clearly drawn connections between the first two chapters and the later chapters might have been helpful for those less familiar with Eagleton and some of the thinkers he treats, but as described above, the careful reader will discern the flow of the book.
Eagleton's book is an excellent and timely treatment of its subject matter, bringing an array of sources to bear in a nuanced account. There will be something for almost any reader to enthusiastically agree—and vehemently disagree—with here. This book will become a valuable resource and interlocutor for scholars and graduate students working on issues of theological anthropology, the relationship between theology and philosophy, and critical theory.
