Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

147

McTAGGART, JOHN McTAGGART ELLIS

and that necessary historical forces will
lead to the collapse of capitalism and,
through a worker’s revolution, to the
reign of the proletariat. The latter end-
state was not at all akin to the state
hierarchy of the Soviet Union but more
of a paradisal world of natural concord
without exploitation. His stance has been
called economic determinism, but it is
more often termed historical materialism.
When he described religion as the opiate
of the people, one might think this is
benign as opium use at the time was
medicinal, but in fact he regarded religion
as a tool for pacifying workers who ought
to revolt against the bourgeois. Marx was
in the left-wing school of Hegelianism
and was strongly influenced by Feuer-
bach. His works include The Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
(1844), Theses on Feuerbach (1845), The
German Ideology (1846), The Poverty
of Philosophy (1847), The Communist
Manifesto (1848), Grundrisse (1857–1858,
published 1953), and Das Kapital (3 vols.,
1867, 1885, 1893).

MASHAM, DAMARIS CUDWORTH
(1659–1708). The daughter of Cambridge
Platonist Ralph Cudworth and close
friend of John Locke, Damaris Cudworth
Masham defended women’s education
and a practical life of Christian virtue.
Her works include A Discourse Concern-
ing the Love of God (1696) and Occasional
Thoughts in Reference to a Virtuous or
Christian Life (1705).

MATERIALISM. A term used synony-

mously today with physicalism, the view

that all that exists is physical. The defini-

tion of what counts as physical is unset-

tled. Are ideas physical? Or time?

MAYA. Sanskrit for “not that” or “illusion.”

In Hindu philosophy, maya refers to the

belief that the sensory world is an illusion.

Advaita Vedanta teaches that the self

(atman) and the Ultimate Reality (Brah-

man) are “not two.” In order to attain

liberation (moksha) from the cycle of

death and rebirth (samsara), one must

transcend the illusion of physical reality.

Maya is sometimes personified as a

goddess.

McTAGGART, JOHN McTAGGART

ELLIS (1866–1925). A British atheist ide-

alist philosopher who argued that tempo-

ral passage (past, present, and future) is

unreal. Such relations (which he called

the B series) can be displaced by what he

called the A series and the relations of

preceding, simultaneous with, and subse-

quent to. His early work was on Hegel,

but he later articulated an elaborate

metaphysics. According to McTaggart,

the world is made up of souls related to

one another in love. He believed in the

immortality of the soul and reincarnation

but denied the existence of a personal

God. Instead, he conceived of the absolute

as the community of souls. His students

Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore,