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Sophia on the web A Resource Guide for Philosophy Students Created by Jennifer Leslie Torgerson, MA This
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George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
CE Bibliography Baird
and Kaufmann. Philosophical Classics: From
Plato to Nietzsche, 2nd Edition. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997 [1994]). Frederick
Copleston, A History of Philosophy: Book Two. (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1985 [1944]). __________, A History of Western
Philosophy: Hobbes to Hume, 2nd
Edition. (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1980 [1952]). Daniel
Kolak. The Mayfield Anthology of Western
Philosophy. (Mountain View,
CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1998). Louis
P. Pojman. Classics of Philosophy. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998). T.
V. Smith and Marjorie Grene. Philosophers
Speak for Themselves: Berkeley, Hume,
and Kant. (Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press, 1957 [1940]). The principle works of Berkeley
George Berkeley and Subjective Idealism What is idealism? Idealism
(or more correctly "idea-ism") is sometimes called mentalism or immaterialism. Idealism (of the subjective
kind) is the theory that the universe is an embodiment of the mind. Idealism
is best defined as the view that all reality is immaterial, or idea.
Metaphysical idealism assumes an epistemological idealism. [i.e. solipsism: (solus
= alone, ipse = self) the theory that nothing can be known but
mind and its mental content, which can be seen as a solipsism.
Solipsism is the reductio ad
absurdum of subjectivity.] According to idealists, matter, or the
physical does not exist. There are two types of
idealism that will discussed in class: subjective
idealism and objective idealism. subjective idealism: The view that reality is our
experience of things. "To be is to be perceived" (Esse est percipi) according to Bishop George Berkeley (1685-
1753), an Irish philosopher of Irish descent. Berkeley wrote several works,
but the most important is Three Dialogues between Hylas
and Philonous (1713), which was his third work,
completed when he was 28. Berkeley meant by esse
est percipi that
nothing but minds and ideas exist. To say that an idea exists means,
according to him, that it is being perceived by some mind. For ideas, Esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. Minds themselves,
however, are not similarly dependent for their existence on being perceived.
Minds are perceivers. To give Berkeley's full meaning we must say: To be is
to be perceived (ideas) or to be a perceiver. All that is real is a conscious
mind or some perception or idea held by such a mind. How, Berkeley asks,
could we speak of anything that was other than an idea or mind? The mind
exists as it is thought in the mind of God. Berkeley was also known for
holding the position that there is no material substance, hence Berkeley is
also, and prefers to be, called an immaterialist. This is a subjective
idealism. The subjectivist holds that there can be no object, as well as no
perception of it, without a knower; that the subject (mind or knower) in some
way creates its object (what we call matter, or things that are known); and
that all that is real is a conscious mind or a perception by such a mind. To
say that a thing exists is to say that it is perceived. What would anything
or could anything be apart from its being known, no one could think or say.
What we think and see is mind-dependent, and the world is mental dependent.
Even so, Berkeley was an empiricist, since all knowledge is acquired
after being perceived by the senses. Berkeley accepted the
psychology of John Locke (1632- 1704), who said that our knowledge deals only
with ideas. (Don't forget that Locke, like Berkeley, was an
empiricist). Locke accepted the existence of spiritual substance,
ideas, and material substance. Locke distinguished between the primary
qualities of matter (form, extension, solidity, motion, number, and so on)
and secondary qualities (colors, sounds, tastes, odors, and the like). The
secondary qualities, according to Locke, are not in the material substance;
they are in the mind or they are the way in which the primary qualities
affect the mind or knower, and they vary from person to person. Berkeley went
further than Locke and attempted to show that the primary qualities, as well
as the secondary qualities, do not exist apart from minds. Berkeley,
therefore, called both primary and secondary qualities "ideas" and
concluded that what we refer to as a material object is simply a collection
of ideas. Berkeley insisted that the arguments used by Locke to prove the
subjectivity of the secondary qualities also demonstrate the subjectivity of
the primary qualities. 5 proofs for subjective
idealism (in summary) 1. The discontinuity of
dualism; 2. Matter as a
meaningless idea; 3. The unexperienced
as unconceivable; 4. The inseparability
of primary and secondary qualities of objects; 5. The relativity of
all qualities. Berkeley uses a reductio ad absurdum argument against
extended substance (matter), by saying that extension is relative to the
perceiver, and that an object would have more than one extension at the same
time. This also shows that extension is a secondary, not a primary
quality of an object. And what of substance, or that which underlies a
thing? Does it too have extension? Is it not absurd to claim that that
which underlies extended things is itself not extended? And since
substance has no accidents, or qualities, but stands under them, can we know
anything of substance? Substance, if it is that which underlies, is not
perceivable. Objects could not cause effects in a mind without a mind
existing. Only ideas can be perceived. Material things are in
themselves, insensible, and exist only as perceptions. Esse est percipi. According to Berkeley,
creation is a continual process. There was not a singular act of
creation. God constantly maintains and sustains all that is perceived;
God is the ultimate perceiver. Objective idealism: To avoid
the difficulties inherent within subjective idealistic positions, others have
developed objective idealistic theories. Objective idealism is the view that
the world out there is Mind (or God) communicating with our (human) minds. An
example of this metaphysical objective idealistic theory is that if the Ideal
Forms developed by Plato. (c. 428- c. 348 BCE). Plato did not call himself an
idealist since the term was not then in use. (Especially see the dialogues: The
Republic and Phaedo). Plato held that
the material or phenomenal world (the world of appearances or BECOMING) is in
a state of flux attempting to emulate (unsuccessfully) the Ideal Forms (the noumenal world or BEING). The Forms exist independently
of the consciousness. The noumenal world of BEING
is the true permanent world of reason. Some criticisms of Subjective + Objective Idealism: OBJECTIVE + SUBJECTIVE (1)
Realists are likely to charge that idealism goes beyond all empirical
evidence and that its "proofs" resort to metaphor and flights of
the imagination based on the hopes and wishes of men. SUBJECTIVE (2) When idealists
claim that existence is dependent on some mind, the realists is likely to
insist that "being perceived" is an accidental feature of an
object, where as existence is an essential feature. SUBJECTIVE (3) The
subjectivist is accused of a misuse of the word idea when they use it both
for the "concept held by the knower" and the "object
known". This double use of the word 'begs the question' and assumes
without proof that there is no real difference between the mind and that
toward the mind's experience is directed. The strength of idealism is
that it justifies, philosophically, the notion that the individual self has
meaning and dignity. |
