"Terry Eagleton makes a powerful argument that materialism is at the center of today's important scientific and cultural as well as philosophical debates, following the inroads being made by contemporary neuroscience on such issues as the nature of consciousness, the body's role in cognition, and the existence of mental states. The author reveals entirely fresh ways of considering the values and beliefs of three very different materialists--Marx, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein--drawing striking comparisons between their philosophies while reflecting on a wide array of topics, from ideology and history to language, ethics, and the aesthetic."-- Provided by publisher.