Locke and Berkeley’s Views on Representative Realism
Locke and Berkeley’s Views on Representative RealismWhat are Berkeley’s main criticisms of Locke’s representative realism? Are his objections good ones? Representative realism is the belief that physical objects are independent from the mind and that they carry certain characteristics that have nothing to do with the individual perceiving them. It is the belief that objects exist whether or not they are being perceived or not. John Locke was a realist, who held a strong belief in the idea that physical objects are real and that they carry specific characteristics no matter whom the perceiver is. He held that our perception is not always accurate as it does not always tell us how something really looks or feels or smells, etc. and that objects will always be there, that we, as human beings, perceive ideas first and than the physical object itself. We perceive primary qualities, i.e. physical properties. Locke believes that primary qualities, such as motion or shape, are in the objects themselves and do not rely on being perceived. Secondary qualities, such as colour or temperature, depend on the mind of the perceiver. They produce specific sensations in us, which affect how we view them. G . . .
Locke believes that, in order to have ideas they must be caused by something outside of the mind. But, Locke thinks that they must have a cause, making idealism false. Locke thinks very differently on this topic and explains so by the use of his “Distance Objection. The implication of this argument is that everyone can perceive things differently, depending on their views and past experiences. Locke believes that we perceive objects because of our senses, which is why they can exist without being dependent on our minds. I agree with Berkeley that you cannot think of an idea that is un-thought-of as every idea comes from another idea. If there are three buckets of water and one contains hot water, one contains warm water and the other cold water. Since we are able to have dreams and illusions that are contained in our mind then our ideas and senses that we perceive objects by are all in our mind as well. Locke would probably respond by saying that primary qualities are in the physical objects themselves and that they are non-moveable. For example, we may perceive a flower very differently than someone else might, due to our vision or perhaps colour blindness. These qualities do not need a perceiver as they will stay the same no matter who is viewing them. It would be a contradiction to say that we thought of something that was outside of our mind and that existed un-thought-of. private to the individual, one can never see the world the same as someone else. Berkeley replies to this statement by using his “Passivity Argument. He held that primary qualities are no different from secondary qualities in that they are both mind-dependent.
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