What is matter?

Matter is a physical object and field that constitutes all objects in the universe. For example, air and water, food and cotton cloth, coal and oil, steel and copper, aluminum, synthetic fibers and plastics are all substances. In the world, all the objective existence around us is matter. The human body itself is a substance. In addition to these physical objects, light, electromagnetic fields, etc. It is also a matter, which appears in the form of a field.

There are many kinds and forms of substances, and the properties of substances are also diverse. Gaseous substances, liquid substances or solid substances; Simple substance, compound or mixture; Metals and nonmetals; Minerals and alloys; Inorganic and organic matter; Natural substances and synthetic substances; Inanimate matter and living matter, as well as solid matter and field matter. Although there are many kinds of substances, they all have their own characteristics, that is, they exist objectively, can be observed, and all have quality and energy.

Classification of substances

According to its development form, substances can be divided into three categories: the first category is energy substances, such as light, magnetic field and electric field. , is the most primitive substance; The second category is space-time matter, such as time, space, wormholes and so on. This is produced by the movement of the most primitive material; The third category is image materials, such as stones, trees, water, etc.

Philosophical definition of matter

Philosophical definition of matter: matter is an integral part of concrete things, a general stipulation and essence of concrete things, an absolutely abstract thing existing in concrete things and relatively abstract things, and a realistic basis for the unity of all things in the world.

Matter is a limb or component that people decompose from concrete things or relatively abstract things by decomposing abstract thinking methods. It is the objective stipulation and realistic essence of concrete things and relatively abstract things.

Concrete things are cognitive objects independent of cognitive subjects and cognitive behaviors. Objectivity is a general law that subjects give concrete things and abstract things through cognitive behavior.

Concrete things generally have the interactive and interrelated object nature and ability, as well as the subjective nature and ability of self-awareness, self-improvement and self-restraint. When a specific thing is influenced by another specific thing, it will react to other specific things that affect it, get interested in it, and get to know it, so the subject, the subject's behavior and the object of behavior will be produced at the same time, and the relationship between subject and object will be established, and the specific things that are reflected, paid attention to and recognized will have objective provisions.

The essence of realism is that concrete or abstract things become cognitive objects and have objective provisions.

As the object of cognition, it must have the essence of reality logically, and it must have various realities such as time, space, value, consciousness, movement and quantity. Empty names without substantive provisions cannot be understood.

Matter, as a concrete thing, has objective stipulation, which reflects the subject-object relationship between concrete things and cognitive subjects. As a concrete thing, matter has realistic essence, which reflects the position of individual concrete things in the process of movement and the unity of opposites between individual concrete things.

Matter is the objective stipulation and true essence of concrete things and relatively abstract things, and it is an absolutely abstract thing that exists in every concrete thing and every relatively abstract thing.

What is absolutely abstract?

Abstract things are the components of concrete things, the rules, laws, manifestations and essence of concrete things, and the cognitive objects formed and produced after the human brain decomposes and abstracts the body parts of concrete things and names them.

Abstract things are the virtual decomposition of concrete things. I call concrete things meta-body, so I call abstract things meta-body. Abstract things or meta-parts have cognitive characteristics that people can't perceive but can recognize.

Every abstract thing has its own content and the limitation of its scope of existence. According to the different content and scope of existence of each abstract thing, I divide abstract things into two concrete forms of existence and expression: relative abstract things and absolute abstract things.

Relatively abstract things are a part of concrete things, one of the concrete forms of abstract things, special laws, laws, manifestations and essence existing in different individuals and different kinds of concrete things, and the * * * and universal laws of all members of the same kind of concrete things.

Aristotle published the theory of substance very early. Aristotle pointed out that entities can be divided into the first entity and the second entity; The individual object is the first entity, and its genus or species is the second entity. He said: the first entity "is the foundation of everything else, and everything else is either used to describe it or exists in it." In the second entity, the closer it is to the first entity, the more substantial it is. For example, when describing a person, it is closer to the individual to say that he is a "person" than an "animal", because the species "person" points out the characteristics of the individual to a greater extent than an "animal".

In order to inherit the cognitive achievements of Aristotle's ontology, emphasize the integration relationship between relatively abstract things and concrete things, and distinguish between two concrete forms or meta-separation of abstract things, I call relatively abstract things meta-entities.

Absolute abstract things are a part of concrete things, one of the concrete forms of abstract things, the general law, law, performance and essence of every concrete thing and every relatively concrete thing, and the cognitive object existing in concrete things, relatively concrete things or relatively abstract things.

Absolute abstract things are also called general abstract things, similar to the ontology discussed in previous philosophy. Absolute abstract things or general abstract things come from concrete things and are part of the ontology of concrete things. In order to emphasize the overall relationship between absolute abstract things and concrete things and relatively abstract things, to emphasize the overall relationship between absolute ontology and meta-entity, and to inherit the spirit of philosophical exploration of ontology, I call absolute abstract things meta-ontology.

Absolute abstract things or meta-ontologies are generally related, and there is no cognitive object with limited scope. Accurately speaking, an absolutely abstract thing or meta-ontology is firstly the general law, law, performance and essence of individual concrete things that human beings touch, experience and know, and secondly it must be the * * * and universality of all individual concrete things that human beings don't know. In this sense, it can be said that absolute abstraction or meta-ontology is the basis of world unity.

Why is matter an absolutely abstract thing that exists in concrete things and relatively abstract things?

Because every concrete thing, every abstract thing has objective regulations and real essence, which contains matter; It is inconceivable and nonexistent for concrete or abstract things that have no objective provisions and real essence and do not contain matter. Because matter is universally related, there is no limited range of cognitive objects. Accurately speaking, matter is firstly the objective stipulation and true essence of individual concrete things and abstract things that human beings have touched, experienced and known, and secondly, it must be the * * * and universality of all individual concrete things and abstract things unknown to human beings.

Because matter is a knowledge object composed of universal provisions that people gradually decompose and abstract concrete things and relatively concrete things, and extract from each concrete thing and each relatively abstract thing.

Why is matter the realistic basis of world unity?

Because matter is one of the keys to open the locked door of a unified world. Matter can not only unify everything in the world, but also unify the world of concrete things and the world of ideas. Matter can not only unify concrete things, but also unify concrete things with every abstract thing, every relatively abstract thing or relatively concrete thing, correctly explain the relationship between matter and consciousness, existence and thinking, solve the long-standing basic problems in philosophy, and scientifically prove that the world is a unified theoretical hypothesis in philosophy.

Because the absolute abstract things or meta-ontologies expressed by the names of matter, value, consciousness, constant name, constant Tao and truth can be completely integrated and contained with each other, and they are the same absolute abstract things or meta-ontologies with different names and the same ontology.

There is only one absolutely abstract thing or meta-ontology in the world. Although people decompose and abstract concrete things and produce many absolute abstract things or meta-ontologies with different names, the cognitive objects expressed by different names are all the same absolute abstract things and meta-ontologies. If two cognitive objects with different names have their own characteristics in connotation, then they cannot be mutually inclusive in formal logic, and their respective extensions are limited, so they do not meet the standards of absolute abstraction or meta-ontology, nor are they absolute abstraction or meta-ontology.

As a scientific concept, an absolutely abstract thing or meta-ontology has formal logic provisions with the largest extension and the smallest connotation. Absolute abstract things or meta-ontologies are only big and only small. There is no restriction on the scope of existence, and there is no regulation on its own content. It is a regulation and restriction on absolute abstract things or meta-ontology. Therefore, I call absolutely abstract things or meta-ontology nothingness.

Why can't materialist philosophy correctly solve the basic problems of matter and consciousness, thinking and existence, and establish an indisputable philosophical world outlook and methodology?

Because materialists at all times and all over the world regard vague concrete things and relatively abstract things between concrete things and absolute abstract things as the basis of world unity, and regard relatively abstract things as the key to open the locked door of a unified world, as a result, everything in the world cannot be unified, and concrete things cannot be unified with abstract things, so they can only stand outside the door of a unified world and do nothing.

Failure to scientifically and strictly distinguish between objects and matter, concrete matter and abstract matter, relative abstract matter and absolute abstract matter is a serious defect of previous philosophical theories, the root cause of the long-term scuffle between materialism and idealism in the history of philosophy, and the root cause of the difficulty in carrying out philosophical social practice, the inability to solve practical problems raised by social development, the inability to meet the needs of society for philosophy and the marginalization of society.

The view that the world is unified is the perceptual knowledge about the world obtained by human beings in their daily life. Thinking is human nature, and human beings are not satisfied with the existing perceptual knowledge about the world, but should prove the acquired perceptual knowledge and obtain rational knowledge about the world through philosophical rational thinking. The starting point of human philosophical practice is that the world has a unified realistic foundation and the world has essence and origin, which is also a theoretical hypothesis that human philosophical practice tries to prove. Only through philosophical practice and rational philosophical thinking can human beings prove the realistic foundation of world unity, find the noumenon and origin of the world, find their own spiritual home and obtain spiritual comfort.

Pursuing the noumenon and origin of the world is the concrete expression of philosophical spirit. Constantly trying to use a specific substance as the key to open the door to unify the world and everything in the world, and prove that the world is a unified philosophical hypothesis and a traditional behavior of materialist philosophy.

The so-called "water, infinity, qi, fire and five elements" in simple materialist philosophy are relatively concrete things or relatively abstract things between concrete things and absolutely abstract things. Ancient naive materialism not only failed to define the connotation and extension of "water, infinity, qi, fire and five elements", but also failed to correctly understand the essence and characteristics of abstract things.

Compared with the concept of "water, infinity, qi, fire and five elements" put forward by ancient naive materialism, the concept of matter formed and produced in the development of modern materialist philosophy has not made substantial progress, and there are serious problems and defects.

The word entity comes from ontology, existence, reality, entity and existence, and it is the deformation or alias of ontology, existence, reality, entity and existence. Ontology is the traditional theory of western philosophy, also known as ontology, ontology, ontology, ontology.

The so-called substance in modern materialist philosophy is a substance with vague connotation and extension, essence and characteristics, a mixture of individual substances and general substances, concrete substances and abstract substances, and a mixture of concrete things and abstract things.

complete picture

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above the material attractions of the world

(1) is an objective reality that is independent of people's subjective consciousness.

(2) refers to money, means of subsistence, etc.

Material refers to the objective reality that can be reflected by people's consciousness without relying on people's subjective consciousness, which is relative to consciousness. The relationship between matter and consciousness is like the relationship between concrete and abstract. Matter is a tangible thing, while consciousness is based on matter, abstract and opposite to matter. Motion is the fundamental attribute of matter, and time and space are the existing forms of moving matter. All images of nature and society are the existing forms of moving matter. The concept of matter in Marxist philosophy is the highest generalization of the fundamental characteristics of all phenomena (natural phenomena and social phenomena) in the world, and cannot be confused with the theory of material structure in natural science. The world is unified materially. The only characteristic of matter is objective reality. The material world can reflect people's feelings and consciousness, but it is inexhaustible. The concept of matter is the foundation of materialist philosophy. Since the 20th century, the new understanding of the nature, structure and form of matter by natural science has continuously confirmed and enriched the material category of dialectical materialism.

Lenin's definition of matter: matter is a philosophical category that marks objective reality and is perceived by people through feelings. It exists independently of our feelings and is copied, photographed and reflected by our feelings.

Including consciousness itself, also exists objectively.

The difficulty of understanding lies in the objective existence of consciousness.

The objective existence of consciousness lies in that consciousness is first produced by the physiological mechanism of the brain itself.

Without the physiological mechanism of the brain, there will be no conscious existence.

Another factor that produces consciousness is the reflection of objects: simple objects that can be "seen" with eyes, objects that can be "heard" with ears, and objects that can be "touched" with hands. The complex objects that can only be "reflected" by thinking with the brain include history, culture and mentality.

So it can be simply defined as: consciousness = brain physiological mechanism+reflex object.

The physiological mechanism of the brain is material, and the object of reflection is material, so consciousness is also material.

From the perspective of natural science,

Matter does not depend on consciousness, but it can be an objective reality reflected by human consciousness. The essence of the world is matter, and consciousness is the product of the high development of matter. Motion is the fundamental attribute of matter, and time and space are the existing forms of moving matter. All images of nature and society are the existing forms of moving matter. The smallest unit of things composed of the same molecule, in short, is the basic element that constitutes various forms, life and even the universe.

Simply put, physical particles and fields are collectively referred to as matter or matter with energy (mass).

The world is made up of matter, which usually has a structure. But does the material structure have a basic unit, that is, democritus's "atom"? This is a long-debated and often new lesson. Although several different contemporary quantum gravity theories have different views on some problems, they give a unanimous and affirmative answer to this question in essence.

Superstring /M theory is similar to circular quantum gravity, and it is believed that the small circle with Planck length (10-33 cm) is the basic unit of matter and spatial microstructure.

Dialectical materialism was proved in Planck length (10-33 cm).

Planck length is determined by gravitational constant, light speed and Planck constant. It is roughly equal to the-33rd power centimeter of 10, which is the twentieth power of a proton size 10.

Planck length l = GH/c 3 = 10-33cm.

Where g is the gravitational constant, h is Planck constant and c is the speed of light.

According to superstring /M theory, the microscopic basic units of matter that make up our world are strings and membranes with extensive ductility, rather than so-called mathematical abstract point particles with only position but no size. Particles in the standard model of particle physics are all excited by strings or membranes. The linearity of chord and membrane (membrane) is a finite Planck length, which is the basic material unit that constitutes our world, that is, democritus's "atom", and it is the ontological unity provided by superstring /M theory for all particles today.

Loop quantum gravity gives the quantization properties of area and volume at Planck scale, that is, discontinuous eigenvalue spectrum, and there are minimum values for area and volume respectively. Because in the loop quantum gravity, the background space that is separated from the gravitational field does not exist, and the primer field is a form of matter, so the pure space that is separated from matter does not exist. The discontinuity of space volume and area and the existence of basic units are the most powerful arguments for the discontinuity of material microstructure and the existence of basic units.

In a word, superstring /M theory and loop quantum gravity reveal the essence and law of quantum gravity from different aspects, and they unanimously come to the conclusion that the basic unit of spatial quantization and material microstructure exists in Planck length (10-33 cm). This is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in the classical concept of time and space in our world at the end of the 20th century, and it is also the result of the integration of general relativity and quantum mechanics. At the same time, space and time are the objective forms of material existence. Without material, there is no space and time, and without space and time, there is no material theory. This is a great victory of dialectical materialism philosophy!

Engels' Concept of Matter

"Matter itself is pure thinking creation and abstraction. When we combine all kinds of tangible things under the concept of matter, we put aside the qualitative differences of all kinds of things. Therefore, the substance itself is different from the concrete substance, and it is not something that exists in the sense. "

According to Engels' concept of matter, we can understand it like this:

1. Matter is the creation and abstraction of thinking.

2. Matter is not something that exists in the sense, so it can't be seen or touched.

3. Matter is an objective reality reflected by people's thinking, but it is not transferred by people's meaning.

Lenin's concept of matter

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Lenin gave a complete and accurate definition of matter according to the analysis of Marx and Engels. "Matter is a philosophical category that marks objective reality. This objective reality is perceived by human beings through their senses. It exists independently of our feelings and is copied, photographed and reflected by our feelings. "

Lenin's material view has the following three aspects:

1. Matter is an objective reality independent of human consciousness.

2. Matter is a philosophical category that marks objective reality, which is the only feature of matter.

Matter can be reflected by people's consciousness.

Original opinion

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What is matter?

Peng Zheye (Jing Tian Man)

Talk about philosophy on the Internet! I deeply feel that people often can't correctly understand the concept of this substance mentioned by materialism. People often impose many things on materialism, the root of which is that they can't really understand the concepts of materialism and matter.

Lenin said that matter is a philosophical category that marks the objective reality. However, people are often misunderstood by this real word, thus confusing the philosophical concept of matter with the physical concept of matter. They think that matter is solid and has quality. But there are too many things without mass in this world, so people's understanding of the material category of philosophy is too narrow, so that information is not material, light is not material, energy is not material, and time and space are not material.

Matter is something that exists outside our thoughts. The basic idea of materialism is to admit that there is a material world outside our thoughts. It's not complicated. Whether you have quality or not, as long as you exist outside our thoughts, you are material.

So does our idea matter? Your thoughts exist outside my thoughts. In this sense, your thoughts are also matter. What about my own thoughts? People's consciousness or thoughts can be self-conscious. When consciousness is the self-object of consciousness, we can think that the self-object of consciousness exists outside of consciousness, that is, consciousness is different from the self-object of consciousness. This difference is the difference within consciousness.

In other words, everything in this world is material, and nothing is not material.

According to objective theism, if God exists, he also exists outside our thoughts. So can we say that God is also material? If God exists, we should say that God is also a substance. But we need to further define the connotation of matter. That is, there is a difference between the substance existing outside the mind and the God existing outside the mind, and the understanding of this difference is the fundamental definition of God. Therefore, in a narrow sense, God is not what we call matter. However, God is not excluded from our fundamental definition of matter, which requires further explanation before we can drive God out. In fact, God exists.

Therefore, the most basic idea of materialism is that matter and thought are distinguished from each other. Of course, there is another aspect. Matter and thought are the same.

Our basic definition of matter is based on the distinction between matter and thought. Another way of saying that matter is something other than thought is actually the difference between matter and thought.

Matter and thought are relative, or the concepts of matter and thought are interdependent. It is meaningless to talk about matter without matter or thought.

On the basis that matter is relative to thought, we can further say that thought is also matter. Without the distinction between matter and thought, it is meaningless to say that thought is also matter.

For the convenience of expression, we say that matter is outside of thought, and thought is inside of thought. Then, compared with the thought inside the thought, the thought outside the thought is material, and the thought inside the thought is thought.

Like a person looking in the mirror. The person outside the mirror is matter, and the person inside the mirror is thought. But now we have a mirror. It looks at the people in the mirror. So outside the mirror, Byakki Smoker is matter, and Byakki Smoker is thought.

Some netizens have said that my definition of matter rather than thought will surprise Professor Ma Zhe, which may be true. I'm afraid such a simple definition is really unacceptable to unfathomable philosophy professors. But these gentlemen may forget that the highest state of philosophy is simplicity. Truth always tells problems in the simplest language.

The Ultimate Explanation of Matter in Apollo's Time Wheel

_ _ _ on the macroscopic existence of matter (the fifth of Apollo's ten theories)

The basic assumption of 1 is that the bottom of matter is an energy photon.

Hypothetical reason:

First of all, there are three ways for matter to release high-energy particles. One is incomplete chemical release, such as combustion. One is the incomplete release of physics, such as nuclear fusion (sunlight) and nuclear fission (atomic bomb). The other is complete release, such as annihilation of positive and negative particles. Since there is an objective fact that macroscopic matter can release energy quantum under certain conditions, what about the other way around? Isn't matter itself an energy quantum?

Second, the thermal effect is, in a sense, the "combination" or "separation" of energy particles and matter. "Joining" generally means that the temperature of the substance rises, and "leaving" generally means that the temperature of the object drops. As we know, no physical entity is immune from temperature changes. Why? Is matter itself made of high-energy particles?

Third, there is no acceleration process of energy quantum from the stable state of matter to the free motion. For example, the photon emitted from the surface of incandescent filament, once it appears, is the speed of light. Isn't this enough to show that even in the bound state of matter, the motion speed of energy quantum is the same as that in the free state?

Fourthly, in the experiment of high-energy accelerator, if the particles with the mass of m 1 are bombarded with particles with the mass of m2 after electromagnetic acceleration, the sum of the particle fragments obtained is greater than (m 1+m2). In this process, we only apply electromagnetic force to particles with the mass of m 1, and the meson of electromagnetic force is the energy quantum. Doesn't this naked "material manufacturing" give us any hint?

Therefore, according to the above four questions, we can assume that matter, as a macro existence, is essentially the result of the balance between energy atoms.

The process of material construction is like snowballing, but it is not simply using the same raw materials and rules.

First of all, in the case of extremely close distance, two yin and yang energy particles moving at high speed change from linear motion to mutual rotation due to mutual attraction, and the linear velocity becomes angular velocity, with the same speed. This energy combination makes the new system change from free high-speed motion to bound low-speed motion. Let's call this most basic substance "Zi Yuan", which is the simplest and most basic macroscopic substance with two-dimensional shape and structure, and then moves in a holistic way.

Secondly, because the energy quantum inside the "atom" has not lost contact with other energy quanta in the universe because of the change of state, new energy quanta or other energy subgroups that are already in the material state will continue to join. In this quadratic combination, the repulsion between quanta with the same performance plays a crucial role: making the matter three-dimensional and optimizing the raw materials. It is easy to imagine that if there is no repulsion between quanta with the same performance, the material structure with the lowest energy level will inevitably have the opportunity to become a two-dimensional plane structure. Even more imperfect is that the smallest tangible unit must contain any amount of positive and negative energy. If nature allows this to happen, the construction process of energy sub-matter may end at this stage. However, since we have observed that there are many large celestial bodies, even giant molecular animals like us, the fact should be that the repulsive force between the same-performance quanta makes the structure at this level have the best mass combination of a solid (sphere) according to an "optimal principle". If non-intelligent high-energy particles (groups) are forcibly added, then in order to follow the "optimal principle", "the high-energy particles that should be eliminated most" will inevitably appear in the next step.

Finally, further structure to the upper level. ...

So the bottom layer of matter is the balance between energy atoms. Matter is not infinitely separable, and the bottom layer is energy quantum. Energy atoms attract and combine with each other to form the most basic substances, and the basic substances continue to seek a more stable state with each other or with energy atoms … until stable atoms or molecules are formed. The existence of macroscopic matter is the destination of high-energy particles. The unsuccessful combination in this process leads to the semi-decay of matter. The higher the kinetic energy of energy, the more difficult it is to combine, which is why the difficulty coefficient of material structure is introduced in the chapter on the evolution of the universe.

From the way of material composition, we can know that macro-matter is destined to be low-speed, and acceleration is self-destruction. The speed of any macroscopic matter must be lower or much lower than the speed of light.

If there is a kind of existence, its speed is equal to the speed of light, and its mass is declared to be zero (there is no static state and it cannot be measured), then it must be an energy quantum itself.

5. A specific structural model determines a specific property performance. For example, electromagnetism is an upper property derived from a specific material structure.

Assumption of stability and uniqueness of material structure.

In the natural state, at any structural level, such as atomic level, in a certain cosmic environment, there is only one form of the most stable structure of material particles in the energy substructure. This hypothesis makes the material world have a relatively stable existence process in the expansion process of energy quantum, rather than an "unpredictable" unstable existence. For a particle that has reached a stable state, the addition of excess energy particles shows the change of motion: from the motion that is only affected by external gravity in the internal equilibrium state to the motion that is influenced by internal unbalanced structure and external gravity. A group of such particles shows a macroscopic change in temperature.

7 experimental verification.

Admitting that the bottom layer of matter is the essence of energy quantum is to admit that the special structural mode determines that energy quantum can be bound to the state of matter. Therefore, we can test the quality differences between substances that look unchanged in the original eyes in different material construction methods. In junior high school chemistry, we learned that two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule can generate two water molecules and release heat through combustion:

2H2+O2=2H2O+ heat

For this common chemical reaction, chemistry teachers and chemistry textbooks tell us that the mass of substances on both sides of the equation is equal, and we also realize materialism from science. But what about the heat on the right side of the equation? Do the released photons have mass? If we have such doubts, in high school, we will see in the extracurricular reading articles of physics that scientists claim that photons have no mass. ...

Now, we can't be fooled by these scientists, who take it for granted that photons have zero mass because they can't be measured:

○ 1 If there is enough mass of H2 and O2 in the closed container with the temperature of T, the mass of the system will become smaller after the system safely burns back to the temperature of T. ..

○2 If there is enough H2O in the closed container with the temperature of T, it will return to the temperature of T after being safely ionized into H2 and O2, and the quality of the system will increase.

○3 Zero-degree water and ice with the same molecular number have different masses.

The reason why many of the above experiments need enough mass or a large number is because the mass of small particles that can be affected by the material structure of the same atom in different combinations is very small compared with the mass of the atom itself, which is why Americans dropped atomic bombs instead of candles in Hiroshima.

Looking around the world we live in, there are all kinds of things, such as buildings, tables and chairs, cars, ships and so on. All these things are called objects, and objects are concrete manifestations of matter.

Objects are made up of air, water, metal, wood and other substances, which are called matter. So we usually say that an object made of matter is called an object. For example, the table is an object, and the table is made of wood, which is called matter. Matter is an objective reality that can be reflected by people's consciousness without being transferred by people's consciousness. The whole world is an objective material world.