Materialistic perspective reduces a person to what?

• A. Athletic performance
• B. Spiritual essence
• C. Social constructs
• D. Physical matter

Answer: (D)

Materialist thinking holds that everything that exists is physical, so a person is ultimately physical matter—the atoms, molecules, and neural tissue that make up body and brain—with thoughts and experiences explained as brain processes. In this view, all aspects of a person reduce to physical matter, rather than to nonphysical forces or essences. Athletic performance is just one outcome that arises from physical and cognitive function, not the fundamental substance of a person. Spiritual essence posits something nonphysical, which materialism denies. Social constructs are ideas about society, not the essential physical substrate of a person. Therefore, physical matter is the component to which a materialist perspective reduces a person.