Subjective Idealism

Briana Trewitt February 27, 2012 PHL 301 Epistemology and Berkeleys Subjective Idealism Epistemology is the study
that attempts to define knowledge, understand its nature, and determine its extent. George Berkeley holds that we can only know things because the mind and the minds ideas coexist. Berkeleys theory of subjective idealism is not only correct in explaining the nature and extent of human knowledge, but it also brings humankind one step closer towards understanding the meaning of our existence. It is important to explore the two schools of thought that offer explanations for human knowledge, so that fair critique may pave a way for deeper insight. Rationalism and empiricism are the two schools of thought in epistemology. Rationalists argue that there are innate things within the mind that exist. They believe that experience can often cause these ideas to be knowledge, but argue that it is not experience that forms these ideas. Rene Descartes, a rationalist, argues that not one thing can explain our idea of infinity unless there is something itself infinite to be its cause, and therefore, our idea of God is innate. The idea of God in the human mind is a priori, prior to experience. Thus, knowledge is a priori. Rationalists often argue that reason and intuition are the most practical method of gaining and understanding human knowledge. On the other hand empiricism, which argues against the rationalist philosophy, believes that all ideas are formed by virtue of sense-experience, a posteriori, and powerfully rejects the ideology of innate knowledge. John Locke and George Berkeley are prolific
and significant philosophers in the school of empiricism, and attention to Berkeleys theory of subjective idealism is important. The question that needs to be addressed when looking at Berkeleys philosophy is whether or not his theories can be proven on demonstrable grounds. By expanding empiricism further than any previous empiricist philosopher, he seeks to negate the accepted theory of matter itself. According to Berkeley, ideas are not only mental phenomena which are the result of sense-experience, but also sensations or perceptions themselves. For example, the sense of touch will imprint ideas of texture, temperature and so on. Berkeley states in his essay, Towards a New Theory of Vision, a certain color, taste, smell, figure and consistence having been observed to go together, are accounted one distinct thing, signified by the name apple. Other collections of ideas constitute a stone, a tree, a book. The basis of Berkeleys argument is that an object exists only due to the collection or totality of the ideas we have of them that are produced via sensation or perception. Berkeley argues that John Locke and other empiricist philosophers as not being empiricist enough. Therefore, he puts complete primacy on the senses. Berkeley rejects Lockes theory of primary and secondary qualities. For Locke, primary qualities are those that are inseparable from a given entity, qualities such as frame and depth, or the objects basic atomic structure for instances. The most significant primary quality of an object is
the matter that forms its structure. Secondary qualities, for Locke, are the features or characteristics of certain objects, such as its color, texture, smell etc. If any of these characteristics changed the primary quality of the object will not be affected. Therefore, primary qualities are already innate and are in no sense conditional on how we approach them. Secondary qualities, however, are conditional on our perception of them. The theory of matter is nonsensical to Berkeley and he argues that matter cannot have some independent existence. In rejecting the idea of matter, Berkeley is not refuting empiricism but argues that Locke and other empiricist philosophers as not being empiricist or practical enough. In conclusion, Berkeley stretches the definition of idea even further to incorporate existence. He uses an example of the desk in his study believing that it exists because he can feel and see it. If the desk was not in his study, he would still know it exists because he has a mental perception of it. Berkeley states in his A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge that [t]he table I write on I say exists, that is, I see and feel it; and if I were out of my study I should say it existed, meaning thereby that if I was in my study I might perceive it, or that some other spirit actually does perceive it. In other words, Berkeley acknowledges the fact that we have not experienced all details in the world and argues that they exist because some knowing mind has. Berkeley believes that it is not just what we perceive that exists, however, but that the mind perceiving them also exists and in sum defines how knowledge is transpired causing one to discover the
essence of existence.

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Briana Trewitt February 27, 2012 PHL 301 Epistemology and Berkeleys Subjective Idealism Epistemology is the study

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