George Berkeley proposed an extreme version of atomistic philosophy and counter-arguments Locke’s theory to an extreme of ‘immaterialism’ that rejected the existence of matter, arguing that the only thing that exists is ideas or the perceptions of those ideas. For him – a Christian Bishop – everything existed only in the mind of God, so there is nothing to see or touch or taste or smell or hear or feel. All that exists are ideas, including the ideas of matter. We cannot directly experience matter because we can only sense the qualities of objects. This means that we cannot prove that any object exists except as the perception of someone else. And since we cannot prove that anything exists, we should accept that nothing exists. As he said in 1710, “To be is to be perceived”. This means that the very act of perceiving something implies its existence. A classic example of his idea is a tree falling in the forest: can one tell it made a sound if nobody was there to hear it?
Introduction
How do we really define Philosophy? The Greek word φιλοσοφία – Philosophia. Or as the term has been coined by modern Western language – Philosophy. The literal meaning of this word is relatively static. Derived from its Greek origin it comprises two separate words...
