Chapter 11 Idealism Berkeleys Subjective Idealism There are
Chapter 11 Idealism
Berkeley’s Subjective Idealism • There are two kinds of idealism in the modern period: – Subjective idealism and absolute idealism • Subjective idealism is the view that only minds & their thoughts & feelings are real © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Berkeley’s Subjective Idealism • Absolute idealism expanded the mental substance of Berkeley to include: – The whole world, and unifying the individual minds of subjective idealism into: • A single all-encompassing world soul or mind © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Berkeley’s Subjective Idealism • The only reason for introducing the fiction of an unperceived underlying matter: – Was to provide some unifying foundation for many different properties of physical objects • Berkeley vs. John Locke © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Berkeley’s Subjective Idealism • Where the subjective idealists see the world as a collection of minds & their ideas – Absolute idealists sees everything in the world as a part of an all-embracing universal mind • According to Berkeley’s analysis: – Seeing an object such as a tomato is the same as having sensations of a certain sort © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
George Berkeley: Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous • George Berkeley (1685– 1735): – Irish philosopher & Anglican Bishop of Cloyne – Argued for his idealistic metaphysics principally in two works: • A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge • Three Dialogues Between Hylas & Philonous © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
George Berkeley: Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous • In Opposition to Skeptics and Atheists – The First Dialogue • • • Sensible things material substance Pain Motion Colors, sounds, tastes © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Challenges for Berkeley’s View • It encounters the problem we would expect any idealist to have to confront; – Namely, how to account for our ordinary belief in physical objects • Second, it faces the more unexpected and surprising difficulty of how to account for: – Our knowledge of our own minds © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Challenges for Berkeley’s View • No philosopher wants to appear to directly contradict common sense • The relation in Berkeley’s philosophy: – Between the mind of God and the reality of the physical world © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Challenges for Berkeley’s View • Though some find Berkeley’s appeal to God in handling this challenge unsatisfying – Berkeley is being thoroughly consistent in going this route • David Hume’s opinion © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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