Berkeley on Substance
Julia Dwyer
Modern Philosophy
Paper 2
George Berkeley, one of the foremost philosophers of the early modern period, published his work Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, as an argument against the idea of material substance. Berkeley demonstrated a form of Subjective Idealism, making the claim that there is no mind-independent reality; all that exists are ideas and the minds that perceive them. To Berkeley, there is no external world with matter or material substance. In what is referred to as the work’s ‘Master Argument’, Berkeley tries to show the inconceivable nature of mind-independent objects by claiming it to be impossible to conceive of an object without the mind, because the instant you do so, the object is in your mind. He believes that all objects or “real things” we perceive are merely ideas that exist in the mind of God, which we in turn experience as perceptions. Perhaps the greatest summation of his argument in Three Dialogues is the following quote: “To be is to be perceived or to perceive.” Berkeley is a monist; he cuts out matter and claims only the existence of mind and its perceptions, i.e. immediate sensation. He brings in the idea of God as the constant perceiver; a being which is necessary to the success of his argument.
It is important to recognize Berkeley’s use and response to John Locke’s notions of primary and secondary qualities. According to Locke, Primary qualities are the fundamental qualities (i.e. properties) in a body, such as solidity, extension, figure, or mobility, which a body does not lose and resemble the sensation they cause in our minds. Locke defined Secondary qualities to be those that aren’t really in the objects themselves and only exist as an idea, for example; color, taste, smell, or sound. To Locke, Modes (i.e. properties or qualities) inhere substance; primary qualities are those that are real, while secondary properties are ideal/not real, existing only as an idea. Locke believes that we
Modern Philosophy
Paper 2
George Berkeley, one of the foremost philosophers of the early modern period, published his work Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, as an argument against the idea of material substance. Berkeley demonstrated a form of Subjective Idealism, making the claim that there is no mind-independent reality; all that exists are ideas and the minds that perceive them. To Berkeley, there is no external world with matter or material substance. In what is referred to as the work’s ‘Master Argument’, Berkeley tries to show the inconceivable nature of mind-independent objects by claiming it to be impossible to conceive of an object without the mind, because the instant you do so, the object is in your mind. He believes that all objects or “real things” we perceive are merely ideas that exist in the mind of God, which we in turn experience as perceptions. Perhaps the greatest summation of his argument in Three Dialogues is the following quote: “To be is to be perceived or to perceive.” Berkeley is a monist; he cuts out matter and claims only the existence of mind and its perceptions, i.e. immediate sensation. He brings in the idea of God as the constant perceiver; a being which is necessary to the success of his argument.
It is important to recognize Berkeley’s use and response to John Locke’s notions of primary and secondary qualities. According to Locke, Primary qualities are the fundamental qualities (i.e. properties) in a body, such as solidity, extension, figure, or mobility, which a body does not lose and resemble the sensation they cause in our minds. Locke defined Secondary qualities to be those that aren’t really in the objects themselves and only exist as an idea, for example; color, taste, smell, or sound. To Locke, Modes (i.e. properties or qualities) inhere substance; primary qualities are those that are real, while secondary properties are ideal/not real, existing only as an idea. Locke believes that we