Response Berkeley 's Idealism
In his book, Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley, in Principles: part 1, replies to the claim that, 'all that is real and substantial is banished out of the world. 'He first responds to this by saying, “...instead thereof a chimerical scheme of ideas takes place.” What he is saying here is that idealism does not just banish all out of existence, instead, it replaces all that exists with ideas of those particular things in the outside world. Berkeley writes, “all things that exist, exist only in the mind, that is, they are purely notional...we are not deprived of anyone thing in nature. Whatever we see, feel, hear, or anywise conceive or understand, remains as secure as ever, and is as …show more content…
Instead, of everything in the world that exists, he believes, when we are sensing it what we are really perceiving is just an idea of that particular object being projected into our minds, since all that a mind can perceive is an idea. Berkeley writes, “there are spiritual substances, minds or human souls which will or excite ideas in themselves at pleasure.”
What this means, is that our mind, our soul, the intangible spirit we all possess, has within it, the ability to perceive any and all ideas of these physical objects at will, whenever it so desires. So, for example, when we see a coffee cup on the table, we are not really seeing a coffee cup, but instead our mind, is receiving this particular idea of a coffee cup, thereby allowing us to 'see ' it sitting on the table. Berkeley writes, “the hardness or softness, the colour, taste, warmth, figure, and such like qualities, which combined together constitute the several sorts of victuals and apparel, have been shewn to exist only in the mind that perceives them; and this is all that is mean by calling them ideas.” What this means is that the colour of the coffee cup, its shape,