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Single Idea 6403
[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / c. Empirical idealism
]
Full Idea
Berkeley's thesis is that reality ultimately consists of a community of minds and their ideas; one of the minds (God) is infinite, and causes most of the ideas.
Gist of Idea
For Berkelely, reality is ideas and a community of minds, including God's
Source
report of George Berkeley (Three Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous [1713]) by A.C. Grayling - Russell Ch.2
Book Ref
Grayling,A.C.: 'Russell' [OUP 1996], p.25
A Reaction
I think Russell nicely pinpoints what is wrong with Berekely, which is that he confuses ideas with their contents. If I think about my garden, the garden is real (probably), which is the content, and they idea is just a way of thinking.
The
15 ideas
with the same theme
[we are trapped inside our own experiences]:
1103
|
'To be is to be perceived' is a simple confusion of experience with its objects
[Russell on Berkeley]
|
6403
|
For Berkelely, reality is ideas and a community of minds, including God's
[Berkeley, by Grayling]
|
3930
|
There is no such thing as 'material substance'
[Berkeley]
|
3936
|
Time is measured by the succession of ideas in our minds
[Berkeley]
|
3939
|
I conceive a tree in my mind, but I cannot prove that its existence can be conceived outside a mind
[Berkeley]
|
3945
|
There is nothing in nature which needs the concept of matter to explain it
[Berkeley]
|
3947
|
Perceptions are ideas, and ideas exist in the mind, so objects only exist in the mind
[Berkeley]
|
6723
|
The 'esse' of objects is 'percipi', and they can only exist in minds
[Berkeley]
|
6724
|
The only substance is spirit, or that which perceives
[Berkeley]
|
6732
|
When I shut my eyes, the things I saw may still exist, but in another mind
[Berkeley]
|
2501
|
Berkeley seems to have mistakenly thought that chairs are the same as after-images
[Fodor]
|
12403
|
There once was a man who said: 'God...
[Sommers,W]
|
12402
|
..But if he's a student of Berkeley...
[Sommers,W]
|
12409
|
The philosopher Berkeley once said..
[Sommers,W]
|
12404
|
Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd....
[Sommers,W]
|