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George Berkeley
NATURE OF EXISTENCE
In this reading, we come across an interesting discussion, which focuses on the nature of existence of things and persons. Here, the two friends Hylas and Philonous are trying to argue the true nature of existence with Hylas, being a materialist arguing in favor of existence without or without perception while Philonous believes that to exist, mind should have an idea of the ting and without idea, things simply do not exist. Philonous is of the view that when we cannot see a thing in our mind, it is impossible to say that it actually exists. In other words, it is our senses that help us establish the existence of something but if they fail to do, that thing simply wouldn't exist. He cites the example of fire, which can be seen and touched but if our senses fail to acknowledge its heat, this fire would simply lose its existence. Hylas however argues that while some sensible things like God can only be perceived by mind but cannot be seen, so He exists even if we can't see him. But all other things exist...
For example, if we cannot think of an orange, it doesn't mean that this fruit doesn't exist.
A found Philonous's theories absolutely ridiculous because whether mind can perceive something or not, whether it has idea of that or not, if it exists, it certainly dos exist. For example, if someone tells me that he met a person with only three fingers on his hand, I might nto be able to think of such a person but that doesn't altogether negate the claim made by my friend. Secondly, there are so many things that we have not yet seen but we can think of them because human beings possess logic and reason / for example, while we have seen other galaxies than the Milky way, we have been told that many other galaxies exist in the universe. We have all the reason to believe that they do even though we cannot exactly picture them.
I believe what Philonous meant by his argument was that unless something cannot be seen from mind's eye, its existence should not be believed o that it should be doubted.…
George Berkeley's principal metaphysical position is idealism; nothing including material objects, exists apart from perception; external objects are ultimately collections of ideas and sensations. From his earliest writings in the philosophical commentaries, Berkeley's idealism is evident. Taking into consideration his thoughts as taken from The Empiricists when he contends that his belief is that apples, trees, mountains exist out there, unperceived by any mind. Some may view this as a
Existence of God The philosophical questions I will try to answer and why they are of particular interest to me. Opinions that ordinary people tend to have on the issue The great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam profoundly influenced Western philosophy. In all of these religions, the existence of God is a central claim. For nearly a millennium from 500 S.D to about 1500 A.D., Western philosophy was the handmaiden
Locke v. Berkeley The philosophers John Locke and George Berkeley offer stark contrasts on the issue of various matters. Locke's whose viewpoint can best be classified as based in relativism. He believed that all knowledge come from the senses. As every man's senses are unique, no two individuals will sense the same experience the same and, therefore, all knowledge is different in each individual. By extension, there is no such thing
First, there is the combining of simple ideas into one single complex idea, "and thus all complex ideas are made" (Locke, 213). Humans also have the ability to look at two ideas simultaneously without combining the; Locke calls these ideas of relations. Finally, abstraction occurs when ideas are separated form all other ideas that generally accompany them in experience. In this manner, Locke believes he has completely described and
Reality and Knowledge Epistemology (the study of knowledge) has occupied philosophers and laypeople alike for as long as human beings have had a conception of reality and knowledge. Many philosophers, beginning with Plato, have argued that reality and knowledge are essentially abstract concepts. Aristotle argued, in contrast that knowledge and reality must be based on the senses and inductive reasoning, while Hume argued that our understanding of reality and causation is
saw two houses: one in the suburbs and one in the center of town. The suburban house was less expensive than the one in town so there must be something wrong with it. The fallacy present in this remark revolves around the notion that when something costs less, it's as a result of some sort of flaw. While there is an expression "you get what you pay for" this expression