1. Describe the argument of the assigned text in your own words.
2. Make one objection to the argument as you have reconstructed, and suggest how Berkeley could reply to it.
The aim of this essay is to demonstrate both an appreciation of George Berkeley’s ‘A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’(1-15), and a thorough understanding of the text. In addition, this essay will offer an objection to Berkeley’s treatise, and a counter argument to that objection, influenced by Berkeley’s idealism.
Berkeley introduces his treatise by categorising the ‘objects of human knowledge’ into three parts: sensation; ‘ideas’ gained through our senses, thought, and imagination/memory; imitations of ‘ideas’ collected through either sensation or thought. One could suggest this is a dangerous opening for Berkeley; he is asking his readers to, in the first sentence alone, accept that there can exist nothing except ‘ideas’. Following this categorisation, Berkeley focuses on sensation, providing lucid examples of how each of the five senses gain ‘ideas’, such as through sight, one can obtain the ‘ideas’ of colours and light. In addition, Berkeley notes that through each sense, one can recognise ‘ideas’ with quantity or degree. In succession, Berkeley argues that our minds can combine obtained ‘ideas’ together to …show more content…
This problem could be easily solved by following common sense, and accepting the probability that there is only one cat and that all perceivers are in fact perceiving the same cat, just from different positions. This, unlike idealism, is the only logical way in which objects shared between two or more perceivers (at the same time) could exist, or else, in line with Berkeley’s thought, every object would be entirely personal. So, we can establish that Berkeley cannot provide us with a logical explanation for objects perceived by multiple perceivers. It then follows that external objects must
2. Make one objection to the argument as you have reconstructed, and suggest how Berkeley could reply to it.
The aim of this essay is to demonstrate both an appreciation of George Berkeley’s ‘A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’(1-15), and a thorough understanding of the text. In addition, this essay will offer an objection to Berkeley’s treatise, and a counter argument to that objection, influenced by Berkeley’s idealism.
Berkeley introduces his treatise by categorising the ‘objects of human knowledge’ into three parts: sensation; ‘ideas’ gained through our senses, thought, and imagination/memory; imitations of ‘ideas’ collected through either sensation or thought. One could suggest this is a dangerous opening for Berkeley; he is asking his readers to, in the first sentence alone, accept that there can exist nothing except ‘ideas’. Following this categorisation, Berkeley focuses on sensation, providing lucid examples of how each of the five senses gain ‘ideas’, such as through sight, one can obtain the ‘ideas’ of colours and light. In addition, Berkeley notes that through each sense, one can recognise ‘ideas’ with quantity or degree. In succession, Berkeley argues that our minds can combine obtained ‘ideas’ together to …show more content…
This problem could be easily solved by following common sense, and accepting the probability that there is only one cat and that all perceivers are in fact perceiving the same cat, just from different positions. This, unlike idealism, is the only logical way in which objects shared between two or more perceivers (at the same time) could exist, or else, in line with Berkeley’s thought, every object would be entirely personal. So, we can establish that Berkeley cannot provide us with a logical explanation for objects perceived by multiple perceivers. It then follows that external objects must