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Questions tagged [berkeley]

Bishop Berkeley is the lead example, within academia today, of the metaphysical belief of idealism. His "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" can be summed up in a single phrase: "esse est percipi", meaning, all that is is perceived.

Bishop Berkeley is the lead example, within academia today, of the metaphysical belief of idealism. His "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" can be summed up in a single phrase: "esse est percipi", meaning, all that is is perceived.

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Why has the philosophy of Bishop Berkeley fallen out of favor in academic philosophy?

I studied George Berkeley as an undergraduate, and though I absolutely loved his work and his philosophy, many of my peers, and even some of my professors, found his philosophy wholly unappealing, even worth mocking. My school offered full classes…
dimo414
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Has modern physics undermined Berkeley's idealism?

To make a long story short, Bishop Berkeley argued that the idea of matter existing independently of perception was incoherent, since the properties of matter are (or were in Berkeley's time) defined in perceptual terms such as hardness, redness,…
James Grossmann
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Did Malebranche believe both the idea in the mind and the movement in the body are caused by God?

My senior thesis explored the notion of action under George Berkeley's system, and one claim I tried to address was that Berkeley contradicts himself when discussing will. In his Philosophical Commentaries, Berkeley writes: We move our Legs our…
dimo414
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How does Berkeley justify existence of other minds?

I don't understand how Berkeley justifies existence of other minds in his system. Is it something that he takes for granted? Because, his position seems very close to that of a solipsist except for acknowledgement of other minds. You'll perceive…
Non-Being
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How did George Berkeley justify his disbelief in matter?

I recently read Berkeley's work entitled "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous" in which he gives an account very similar to that of Kant. "Appearances, so far as they are thought as objects according to the unity of the categories, are…
NationWidePants
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What is Light in Berkeley's Metaphysics?

What is light before we see it? For Berkeley, everything that has not been perceived doesn't exist, but light needs to exist unperceived before it reaches the eyes. How is this possible in Berkeley's idealism?
Arthur Carneiro
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In which text does Berkeley develop his philosophy of subjective idealism?

A while ago, I asked this question about Borges's philosophical influences, which yielded Berkeley. Reading the wikipedia page on Berkeley, I can see that as far as philosophers go, his philosophy of subjective idealism indeed exactly what I was…
magnetar
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What are the main differences between Berkeley's and Locke's view of ideas?

I'm currently taking Modern Philosophy at my university, and we went over Berkeley and Locke in a span of ten minutes in order to get to Hume. As far as what they (Berkeley and Locke) thought about "ideas," how we acquire them or what role they play…
Reyes Espinoza
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Objection to Berkeley's Master Argument

The Master Argument (roughly) states that it is not possible for sensible objects to exist without a mind. Now part of Berkeley's Argument goes as follows: Suppose something exists without being conceived of by anyone, in thinking of such an such an…
user2268997
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Why do current academics refuse to acknolwedge idealism as viable?

Berkeley is often sited as the "ideal" of idealism. Most of the academic arguments attack his various points, but his finer points seems to escape the academic community. Kant gives some effort in being fair to Berkeley's idealism in his…
NationWidePants
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How is Kant's transcendental idealism related to Berkeley's subjective idealism?

My understanding is that Berkeley considered the outside world to have no existence at all, and took the statement "It's all in the mind" literally, whereas Kant argued that the outside world exists independently of the observer, but we can never…
Alexander S King
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Are consistent solipsists limited to the singular when referencing themselves?

If you are an Idealistic Solipsist, is it not true that you must say "I am a Solipsist." or "I am the Solipsist."? One cannot say "I am one of the Solipsists" for example. Are there other counterexamples?
hellyale
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What are the rebuttals (if any) to Berkeley's dismissal of "primary qualities"?

I am rereading Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous and am curious about any subsequent works which actively rebut his dismissal of primary qualities. From the first dialogue: Phil. You are still then of the opinion that extension…
asteri
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What does Kant refer to when writing about "dreaming (träumenden) idealism" and "visionary (schwärmenden) idealism"?

In Note III to §13 of the Prolegomena, Kant seems to be answering some critics that have compared his transcendental idealism to the philosophies of Descartes (at least the skeptical part of it) and Berkeley. In the very end of it, he writes…
gsmafra
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For Berkeley, how do subjective experiences exist?

In Three Dialogues, Berkeley advances a theory of subjective idealism. Things only exist as experiences of individual consciousnesses. These things are static and themselves unthinking, as they are pure ideas. And they persist even when we are not…
Canyon
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