Lecture 29 Notes

Review: Berkeley's Project

1. Berkeley's Thesis--The only things that exist are minds and their ideas!!!
2. Berkeley argues for this thesis by applying Locke's variance arguments to primary qualities.  The same sort of argument that Locke used to show that secondary qualities are just ideas in the mind can also be used to show that primary qualities are just ideas in the mind.

Berkeley's Defense of Common Sense

1. All qualities we perceive really ARE in the object.  (Objects are just collections of ideas; the qualities are the ideas.)
   
2. We CAN trust our senses.  (Our senses contact these collections of ideas and hence tell us what objects are really like.)
   
3. We CAN know things as they truly are. (What we know are the collections of ideas, and this is what objects truly are.)
   
4. Objects ARE real.  (They are just collections of ideas as opposed to bits of mind-independent matter.)

Berkeley's Challenge: Unperceived Objects

1. The Challenge--If objects must be perceived to exist, then do things pop out of existence when no one is around???
2. Berkeley's Reply:
1. To avoid this absurdity, there must be a constant perceiver of everything!
2. There is only one candidate for this role: GOD.
3. Berkeley converts a potential criticism into an argument for God's existence.