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 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.