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Full Idea
As our ideas are perpetually varied, without any change in the supposed real things, it necessarily follows that they cannot all be true copies of them.
Clarification
'Ideas' here are perception experiences
Gist of Idea
Since our ideas vary when the real things are said to be unchanged, they cannot be true copies
Source
George Berkeley (Three Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous [1713], III p.239)
Book Ref
Berkeley,George: 'The Principles of Human Knowledge etc.', ed/tr. Warnock,G.J. [Fontana 1962], p.239
A Reaction
This seems a good objection to any direct or naïve realist view. Colours get darker as the sun goes down, and objects become blurred as they recede into the distance.
| 3958 | Since our ideas vary when the real things are said to be unchanged, they cannot be true copies [Berkeley] |
| 4758 | Naïve realism leads to physics, but physics then shows that naïve realism is false [Russell] |
| 5677 | Naïve direct realists hold that objects retain all of their properties when unperceived [Dancy,J] |
| 6485 | When a red object is viewed, the air in between does not become red [Robinson,H] |
| 3875 | If reality is just what we perceive, we would have no need for a sixth sense [PG] |