I raise the question as to whether the material world is the most absolute form of reality as it appears to be at the centre of most other debates within philosophy. It is essential to how we perceive the world. Certain philosophers, such as Kant and Plato, believed in transcendent ideas, beyond the material world. Others see reality in terms of the basis of physical reality, such as Sartre's belief that existence proceeds essence , which points to the material realm as the ultimate basis of our living reality.

I would say that the question is central to any philosophy ranging from those based on a belief in a transcendent order, the philosophy of hard determinism, existentialism and nihilism, as well as the philosophy of quantum physics. It is at the centre of the whole consideration of life and death and how we frame reality, so I see it as one of the most important philosophy questions. It is one which underlies so many other ones, but perhaps it
may get overlooked amidst the complexity of arguments . On this basis, I wish to highlight the question as one its own right, as it is often in the background as a subtle form of arguments and premises, and I wish to bring it into a more focus for fuller consideration.