Materialism and spiritualism: the dualistic way of Western thinking

Ever since the beginning of Western philosophy in ancient Greece there have been two fundamental approaches to life in general: materialism and spiritualism. In the Renaissance this basic question came into discussion again. In the 19th century the real fight began. On the one hand we have had the materialistic 'leftists', namely Marx, with the political consequence of the Russian revolution. On the other hand we had Kierkegaard, Bergson, etc. searching for the fundamental facts in human life, enabling us to survive in dignity. The moment has come, where we must see that human emotion is by far more important in the question of life and death, namely in psychosomatic illness, than all the riches of the world.