George Berkeley and his Famous Work - Essay Example

Philosophy 2 November George Berkeley and his Famous Work: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge Introduction George Berkeley was born in 1685 in Ireland (Olscamp 1). His father was known as William Berkeley and “was related to Lord Berkeley of Stratton, who was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1670 to 1672” (Olscamp 1). It is speculated that his mother was related to the conqueror of Montcalm, Canada, General Wolfe. George Berkeley was educated at Kilkenny School and later joined Trinity College, where he was able to attain his Bachelors and Masters degrees in divinity. After achieving his education to that level, he became an Irish Bishop, he was later ordained as an Anglican priest in 1710. Berkeley was a great a philosopher with many philosophical achievements under his theories of idealism and immaterialism. He is also best remembered for his early works on vision and metaphysics, the latter regarding the treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge (Olscamp1). His death occurred in 1753 and according to his will, his body was to be kept above the ground for some time before burial; this shows how great a philosopher he was. Being a philosopher, Berkeley took time to study wisdom and truth. It is normally assumed that those who take such direction in life have greater enjoyment of life and peace of mind with clear understanding of many things. Another assumption that exists is that these philosophers have fewer disturbances than any other man. The other group of people who are not philosophers often put blames on objects and facilities that are meant to help human beings, rather than taking the responsibility so that humans can change and live a better life. Berkeley urges us to have belief in God who has been generous to men giving them great desire to have knowledge (Berkeley, “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge” 1). In his book “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge,” Berkeley has tried to reason out that most of the difficulties that are incurred by men have in the past perplexed and swindled philosophers and as a result blocked the way to knowledge thereby creating an eye blocking upon the human being, the result is complain that we are not able to see what is going on in life. The purpose of Berkeley’s study in philosophy was to try to discover underlying sources that have created a lot of doubtfulness and uncertainties with regard to philosophy. Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge The principle of idealism Berkeley was pushed by the desire to make discoveries about the principles that have introduced doubtfulness and uncertainties as well as contradictions in life, especially along the lines of philosophy. Adding his argument on that, Berkeley had made an observation that even the wise men have the notion that ignorance has no cure; he envisages it to the rise in natural dreariness and inadequacy of faculties (Berkeley, “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge” 10 ). It was a belief by George Berkeley that when one takes an analysis of human knowledge, “the ideas are either actually imprinted on the senses or perceived to be attending to the passions and operations of the mind” (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 29). Human ideas are developed by the help of the brain whereby imaginations are formed. Berkeley used the idea of light and colours to expound the fact that through them, one can be able to differentiate amongst many things that surround the human being; they may be touch or smell, hearing also conveys information regarding the tonal variations. Several objects that are used by human beings to understand the surrounding whether being colour, smell, and taste, they all define the passion of love, hatred, happiness and sadness. Besides the knowledge and ideas that accompany the understanding of the nature and the environment, this has to be accompanied by the ability to remember and imagine, as well as willingness to deal with the challenges that face human beings. The ability to perceive the active being is what Berkeley refers to as “mind, spirit, soul or myself” (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 30). Through this thought, he wants to put across an observation that; for an idea to exist there has to be the ability to perceive; this will make the various imaginations distinct from one another, and thus can be distinguished from the other. The observation given here by Berkeley is that even though we may have thoughts, passion, or ideas all formed through imagination, they cannot come into being without the presence of the mind, so it is the mind that is perceived to be the mother of all ideas and imagination. Whenever a sensible thing exists, then it provides a platform for acquiring some knowledge, it doesn’t matter the period with which something existed but as long as its presence can be acknowledged in some way, then it can be appreciated for its source of knowledge. Berkeley (“The Principles of Human Knowledge” 30) describes some of the things that define reality, and to show case this view, he gives an example of things that existed though smell, touch, colour or sight. He further classifies the description of absolute existence of things that are unthinkable and have not been perceived in any way; according to his description they are classified as unintelligible. Whenever one surveys the objects of human knowledge, then it can be easily realised that they are all ideas regarding the senses perceived by attending to one’s own emotions and activities of the mind. It is believed that all noticeable objects such as buildings, rivers, and other physical features do exist in reality; they don’t need to be perceived through understanding and intelligence. In things that exist and are independent of the mind, they are perhaps found to be basically present depending on doctrine of abstract. (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 12). At times, some truths are so near to the mind; the proof of this assumption is that when one opens the eyes, then he can be able to see the things he has been imagining. According to Berkeley “all choir of heaven and furniture of the earth and all the structures found in the world can only exist in the mind, they will only exist through perception” (“The Principles of Human Knowledge” 12) Berkeley observed that some of these objects exist in spirit form. He argues that “the perceptible qualities are such things like colour, shape, motion, smell and taste” (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 12). From here, it can be deduced that an idea originates from the fact that one has to perceive, otherwise it would be self contradiction to think otherwise. Berkeley thinks that it is hard to separate in thinking the difference between the existences of a perceptible thing from its being perceived. It is common that ideas do only exist within the mind. The only comparison that can be made between the ideas in the mind and those outside the mind is that they have some resemblance though these items that exist in an unthinkable manner. Berkeley gives his view over this subject that the only thing that can resemble an idea is an idea; he goes further to cite an example that a colour or a shape cannot resemble anything else, except to resemble another colour or shape respectively. The reader is convinced to make an understanding of absolute existence of things that cannot think. To have the right understanding and make an observation like Berkeley urges that readers to have a calm thinking and while doing so, try to figure out what comes beyond the thoughts. Berkeley says that sensational things that we perceive are visibly not active. To elaborate more on this, it can be easier said that one idea cannot produce or be in a position of affecting another idea. The human qualities There are two types of qualities according the Berkeley (“The Principles of Human Knowledge” 13); these are primary and secondary qualities. In this case, primary qualities stand for extension shape and rest, while secondary qualities stand for the qualities that are perceptible example colours, sound, and tastes. Secondary qualities don’t have a resemblance outside the mind; they are unperceived, whereas the primary qualities are the things that have resemblance outside the mind. Their existences outside the mind are in the form of images and are referred to as matter. For one to have an idea of a moving object, then the issue of colour and shape or any other perceptible quality has to be incorporated. Berkeley puts it that primary qualities have to be present in the place where the secondary qualities are which in simple terms mean the mind. Even though the primary qualities are perceived to be found outside the mind, some are entirely found within the mind, for example numbering. In our day to day life, many objects are assigned different numbers. For the case of distance, same position can be allocated with varied values; this depends on the units used be it yards, metres, or any other unit used. Same number can too be used in several occasions; one can say one book, one page, one line, and so forth. This are arbitrarily combined together in the mind (Berkeley “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 14). Berkeley defends his view that shape and extension do not bear a resemblance to any quality existing in matter simply because of varied observation by different viewers. To support this idea, he uses an argument given by some modern philosophers that the temperature of a body can vary depending on the hand of the person taking the test; one can report cold while the other can report warmth, this provides contradicting result regarding similar object. Berkeley discusses this that the difference comes out as a result of the fact that heat and cold are only states of mind. Further arguments are given by Berkeley that sweetness of something can vary with people. In others, something that is sweet with others may be bitter with others, and the same case applies to the motion. All these variations are dependent on the succession of ideas in the mind of the observer. Many arguments put across by Berkeley are with an aim of proving that colours and tastes only exists in the mind and are much needed to prove some things such as movement, shape, and extension. He further defends his original argument that “it is impossible that any colour or extension or perceptible quality should exist in an unthinkable thing outside the mind” (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 14). For the existence of matter, many arguments have been put across. Berkeley sees some loopholes in these doctrines which has led to various controversies and misunderstanding of philosophies and has extended to disputes in religion. The philosophy of conceiving informs that there are many things that one can imagine to exist; for example, the presence of some items on the shelf, with nobody there to perceive them. It is easy for one that has such imagination but there are more than that. Imagining things and assigning them names is an easy task, failure to perceive further than that about the other person to also perceive them is considered a failure in an experiment. When this happens it shows that one is capable of imagining things but cannot conceive them to exist outside the mind (Berkeley, “The Principles of Human Knowledge” 15). In this case, the mind gets into a notion that it is capable of conceiving things outside the mind; this is because the mind in this particular case cannot give itself any attention. The only thing that it can do is to think of things that it can conceive. The doctrine of Abstraction Some of the philosophers who came after Berkeley had an argument that we should not trust our minds. John Locke (qtd. in Rickless 1) had a claim in his work concerning the understanding of a human being, he said that “we should sit down in a quiet ignorance of these things, which upon examination are found to be beyond the reach of our capacities”. Contrary to this thinking, Berkeley himself had claimed that man have a very great desire for knowledge. Berkeley has a stand that we should believe in the evidence found in our minds. He also thinks that minds have the power to frame abstract ideas. It is this doctrine of abstraction, Berkeley has a view that if man can get rid of it, then he can be able to understand what the world is like and at the same time, know more about it. In most cases, it is difficult to get things existing on their own. Instead they are found in a blend; they could be several things mixed up together in one object. Berkeley takes this idea to shed light on how the mind behaves. His arguments are that “the mind being able to consider each quality singly or abstracted from those other qualities with which it is united” (Berkeley, “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge” 11). Abstraction in itself means that a mind perceives by sight an image that is extended, is coloured, and has been displaced from its original position. The mind sees these exclusively each being independent on itself, thus the mind frames by abstraction. Materialism There are only two distinct material substances according to Berkeley, these are the mind and their ideas; he criticizes other ideas that tend to think contrary to his opinion (Rickless 6). The main culprits with this thinking were scientists like Galileo, who thought that secondary qualities are ideas that only exist in mind. Another philosopher targeted by Berkeley was Locke, who was of the opinion that some ideas such as shapes bear a resemblance to qualities that fall under the category of unthinking material substance. In addition, Berkeley argues that even if the idea of material substance was rational, it could have been very hard for any man to realize their existence. Rickless (7) tells us that it was the argument of Berkeley that knowledge had to be grounded either in sense or reason. Arguably, having a sensation concerning something is not enough to give a guarantee of the existence of that thing. It’s also noted that there is no connection between the art of mind and that of material substance, since it is possible to lack material substance, but yet be able to have mind full of sense. Generalization Upon making some observations pertaining particular observation, the mind can thus perceive that some things are common and look alike. The only distinguishing feature comes in the form of magnitude. When an object is observed, the mind can decide to leave out those colours that distinguish one object from the other and instead remain with the common colour, with that, the mind will have an idea of colours in abstract form, neither black nor red nor green and so forth. Similarly, the mind can generalize motions by framing them all to be in a particular direction with a common velocity (Rickless 10). The laws of nature The definition of laws of nature as described by Berkeley is that they are the set of rules upon which the mind excites ideas such as sense. Berkeley observes that the laws of nature define the similarity and differences between ideas made out of senses and those made through imagination. It is quite clear that when ideas are made out of sense they are not only strong and lively but are also distinct. Reactions from Other Writers and Audience There is no doubt that the work of Berkeley reached many philosophers as well as readers and writers throughout the region, thereby voiced varied reactions. Amongst these audiences, some gave a lot of praises, while others criticised the work. All in all, in life there are two sides of the coin. Rickless was drawn in the middle of either side; at one time praised the work of Berkeley while on the other hand gave criticism (1). He said that the argument was wonderful; he then goes ahead to say that sometimes it was frustrating since it could not be understood (Rickless 1). With regard to the criticism on the work done by Berkeley, it may not be fair when a philosopher criticises the work of his fellow philosopher without being well informed, even if well informed, the critics could lack principles. Daniel (199) says that “some historians of philosophy consider that the criticism one philosopher can make about another is a dialogue of the deaf,” this observation is to serve the purpose of saying that the criticism and praises made towards Berkeley are significant and are not regarded as for the deaf. Berkeley is given very high attention today due to his astonishing contribution. His tireless efforts have gone far and wide grasping applauds from various corners. His work managed to tackle the concerns of the present day philosophers. Turbayne (254) makes clear of the contribution of Berkeley; he sees him as the great contributor towards solving the problems of perception, difficulty in distinguishing between primary and secondary qualities, significance of languages and the nature, as well as knowledge about ourselves and God. The philosophy of Berkeley served as reference in some activities of the philosophers who followed him. To read and follow Berkeley’s work, there was some written order that he had recommended; the work was to be followed systematically in a chronological order. One of the philosophers admired this. According to Parigi (20), Stephen Daniel showed unity and coherence towards Berkeley’s work. Daniel agreed in stressing the significance of Berkeley’s doctrines of signs (Parigi 22). Some writers are opposed to the doctrine of idealism. According to Rickless (14), they argue that sensible things at every moment disappear and others are created. The criticism says that if it is true that sensible objects are as a result of ideas, then they should not exist once the y cannot be perceived. This is perhaps despite the argument given by Berkeley that the fact that one closes the eyes does not make a real object to vanish. Works Cited Berkeley, George. The Principles of Human Knowledge. Early Modern Texts, n.d. PDF file. Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Maryland: Arc Manor LLC, 2008. Print. Daniel, Stephen. Re-examining Berkeley’s Philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. Print. Olscamp, Paul. The Moral Philosophy of George Berkeley. New York: Springer, 1970. Print. Parigi, Siliva. George Berkeley: Religion and Science in the Age of Enlightenment. New York: Springer.2010. Print. Rickless, Samuel C. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. University of California, San Diego, n.d. PDF file. Turbayne, Colin. Berkeley: Critical and Interpretive Essays. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1982. Print. Read More