George Berkeley

George Berkeley is famously known for his statement, “Esse est percipi” which means if we are able to perceive something then it certainly exists. Nothing outside our minds exists, meaning material substances are irreconcilable. Perceiving is the entity equated to mind, body and soul or simply our self. Ideas exist and are imprinted through the sense faculty. Ideas are actively perceived by this entity called the ‘Spirit’. The existence of things which we do not perceive is left within the mind of the highest being who is God. Even though Berkeley strongly critiqued John Locke’s empiricism in the radical way, he himself can be considered as an idealist. For Berkeley, primary and secondary qualities are unnecessary because they are mainly subsisted through matter. Although it is very much contradictory because for Berkeley, matter or any corporeal thing does not exist …show more content…
He tried to somehow save the idea of religion since during his time; it was slightly disregarded due to the rise of the different sciences. We, humans, are subject to certain limitations and that the very idea of which are beyond our capacity to comprehend are certainly left within the concept of the being that is above us. It seems like in adducing God in philosophy, we are supplied with the universal solution for problems we think are superior and cannot be explained through the use of the physical world. Although for me, his empiricism is sort of ludicrous because the existence of a thing depends on a mind perceiving it. His empiricism is very unusual because he already rejected the material world. It is kind of absurd to say that nothing exists when in fact, even with the use of one sense-organ; we can immediately prove if something thus exists. Although, Locke’s epistemology pretty much withstood Berkeley’s analysis, it also prompted Hume to more thoroughly evaluate