How Does George Berkeley Characterize Common Sense

Starting out, George Berkeley begins with having a clear understanding and characterization of common sense. He says that there are two principles by which we characterize “commonsense realism”. George Berkeley says the two principles are, “1. Things exist independently of our perceiving that they do. 2. Things have the qualities they seem to have: The rose we see is really red, the sugar on our tongue is really sweet, and the fire we approach is really hot” (Melchert 382). Previously, Galileo, Descartes, and Lock deny the second principle. They would claim that the rose is not red, the sugar is not sweet and the fire is not hot. George Berkeley says, with respects to these philosophers, that their arguments are literally senseless. This is one reason why I agree with George Berkeley. Obviously, if one were to jump into a fire they would feel hot. They would hot because it is hot, not because feelings are not things at all. If those previous philosophers disagree with that a fire is hot, I would ask them to set themselves on fire and ask them if they were hot. Because, they would be, its common sense. …show more content…
He also says, however, that when we perceive the ordinary objects with our senses it is produced by a sensation. Essentially, ordinary objects are sensations. He also says that it is not possible for any sensation to be unperceived, that means that it is not possible for any object to exist unperceived. This is another reason why I agree with Berkeley. Every sensible object must be perceived. If an object were to exist unperceived, we could not know that it exists. Therefore, any sensible object has to be perceived by us to know that it