Materialism is an impressively broad concept. It spans all the way from the body-mind problem to the question of whether the state exists primarily for the protection of private property. It could mean the denial of God, the belief that the Great Wall of China and Clint Eastwood's ankles are related in a secret way, or the insistence that the Golden Gate Bridge still exists even when no one is looking at it.

Amid all this, it also has an everyday meaning, which is by no means philosophical. For most people, materialism means an excessive regard for material goods.

“By the word materialism,” writes Friedrich Engels, “the small-minded hypocrite perceives gluttony, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, arrogance, greed, avarice, cupidity, the pursuit of profit, and the swindles of the stock market - in short, all the filthy immorality to which he indulges in private.”