Berkley
As man progressed through the various stages of evolution, it is
assumed that at a certain point he began to ponder the world around him. Of
course, these first attempts fell short of being scholarly, probably
consisting of a few grunts and snorts at best. As time passed on, though,
these ideas persisted and were eventually tackled by the more intellectual,
so-called philosophers. Thus, excavation of "the external world" began. As
the authoritarinism of the ancients gave way to the more liberal views of
the modernists, two main positions concerning epistemology and the nature
of the world arose. The first view was exemplified by the empiricists, who
stated that all knowledge comes from ...
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figure who believed that material
substance did not exist is George Berkeley. In truth, it is the
immaterialist position that seems the most logical when placed under close
scrutiny.
The initial groundwork for Berkeley's position is the truism that the
materialist is a skeptic. In the writing of his three dialogues, Berkeley
develops two characters: Hylas (the materialist) and Philonous (Berkeley
himself). Philonous draws upon one central supposition of the materialist
to formulate his argument of skepticism against him; this idea is that one
can never perceive the real essence of anything. In short, the materialist
feels that the information received through sense experience gives a
representative picture of the outside world (the representative theory of
perception), and one can not penetrate to the true essece of an object.
This makes logical sense, for the only way to perceive this real essence
would be to become the object itself! Although the idea ...
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Examples of these would be number, figure, motion, and
extension. Secondary qualities are those things that are concrete (sense
oriented), such as color, smell, sound, and taste. The materialist feels
that these primary qualities persist even when the secondary ones are not
there. Thus, if a person were blind, then that individual would not be
able to hear or to touch items; yet the so-called real qualities such as
figure would remain existent in the objects. As previously shown, the
materialist is agnostic in his belief of these real (primary) qualities.
It is here that Berkeley directs an alternate hypothesis: that the abstract
primary qualities don't exist at all. ...
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Berkley. (2004, February 21). Retrieved April 25, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Berkley/3414
"Berkley." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Feb. 2004. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Berkley/3414>
"Berkley." Essayworld.com. February 21, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Berkley/3414.
"Berkley." Essayworld.com. February 21, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Berkley/3414.
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