(also called Physicalism).— The doctrine according to which all that exists is matter or bodies. It denies the existence of anything spiritual. With regard to human beings, it denies that there is any spiritual dimension to their nature. The understanding of matter in materialism is not necessarily the understanding of matter that one encounters in hylemorphism but is understood as just that which is perceived by the external senses or,in modern materialism ,as matter is understood by the modern natural sciences.