What makes people irrational thinkers?

[polymath257]

Am I correct that physicalism postulates that everything is made of energy, matter, space, and time? Are materialism, naturalism, and physicalism all basically the same position?

This depends, to some extent, on who is talking. Some people make distinctions between these concepts, but there is little consistency in this.

Some see materialism as being focused on a more deterministic, mechanical description. But if physical processes are not 'mechanical' or deterministic, then physicalism and materialism may well be different approaches.

There is also the difficulty of defining what is meant by the term 'physical'. Light, for example, is usually not thought of as being made of matter, so may not be considered (under some interpretations) to be 'material', but it is certainly 'natural' and 'physical'. Gravity is another aspect that is not 'made of' matter, but rather describes how matter interacts and so is 'physical' or 'natural' without being 'matter' or 'material'.

I often find that arguments against 'materialism' are arguments against 'everything being made of matter' and so don't really represent the materialist/physicalist/naturalist viewpoint accurately. This is why I prefer the term 'physicalism'.

Also, the phrase 'made of' need not apply directly. Instead, I would use the language of supervenience. I see physicalism as being essentially: If we have information about *everything* physical, we could *deduce* what is happening for everything meaningful.

So, an idea may not be 'made of' anything physical if it is a physical *process* (or collection of physical processes). But, if you knew the complete physical description of the brain over time, then all ideas thought by that brain would be determined. In that sense, ideas supervene on the physical. If we could know all there is about the brain and how it functions, we would also know what the 'mental states' are that it is experiencing, and so would have an 'explanation' of consciousness.