Philosphy berekly
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 is logical, it does contain a certain grounding for agnosticism. Let the reader consider this: if there is no way to actually sense the true material essence of anything, and all knowledge in empiricism comes from the senses, then the real material essence can not be perceived and therefore it can not be posited. This deserves careful consideration, for the
At this point Berkeley explains that the so-called tertiary qualities of an external object are non-existent. In accordance with the immaterialists' view, my actively perceiving mind would be electing not to reflect back upon the past. However, when the museum closes and the person goes home, does the artwork continue to exist? Obviously the person pursues other activities of the day, and he ceases to think about what he did earlier. Unlike the materialists' view, the immaterialist puts God at the center of his views. Therefore, for any person to perceive something, the idea must be in the mind of God first. Logically, the only possible way for this to occur is if the external object had a mind for the qualities to be thought of and stored by. 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. Therefore, it follows that, since no primary, abstract quality can exist alone, it is the same as a secondary quality in which an actual object must first be perceived. After being enlightened by the above proposed argument, though, that same materialist is logically forced to agree that, because the "material substratum1" itself can not be sensed, its existence can not be treated as knowledge. With this being the case, a person can only have a single sensation at a time. In the three dialogues, Hylas brings up the point that these qualities are "perceive[d] by the sense.
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Acceptance Essays
