John Locke's Argument Essay: Is There A Real World?

Is there a real world? If so, is it as it appears? For centuries, philosophers have debated whether or not the real world truly exists. Nearly all philosophers can agree that there is an objective reality and a subjective reality. The objective reality can be defined as anything that exists independently of any conscious awareness of it; it is uninterrupted, unchanging, and the same. Contrastingly, the subjective reality then relies on some conscious awareness of it to exist; it is interrupted, changing, and different (Mulder). The real world may exist, but one cannot be sure of its existence or whether or not it is as it appears. René Descartes was a French philosopher in the mid 1600s. He stated that the world exists because it is experienced.
He was an empiricist, meaning that he believed that knowledge is derived from experiences through the senses. Locke then divided those sensations into two groups: primary qualities and secondary qualities. Primary qualities are the qualities that belong to the object such as size, shape, number, mass, and motion. On the other hand, secondary qualities are qualities of the object as one perceives them. This includes color, smell, sound, and taste. All secondary qualities are the result of motion and collision. For example, the perception smell is caused by material particles in the air hitting nerve endings in one’s nose. Similarly, the perception of sight is caused by material particles in the air bumping into one’s retina (Connolly). Locke described these individual qualities as simple ideas, meaning they cannot be broken down into any smaller concepts. Simple ideas then come together to form complex ideas. For example, a glass of orange juice is a complex idea. It is composed of several simple ideas: the color orange,
John Locke’s idea that simple ideas must represent real ideas because the mind is incapable of forming such simple concepts is baseless and contradictory, considering that he was an empiricist. What Locke considered to be simple ideas are simply sensations that humans have identified and named. And if an empiricist believes that all knowledge is derived from experiences, then an empiricist should not believe that anything exists outside of one’s experiences. On the other hand, both René Descartes and George Berkeley used the existence of God to prove the existence of the real world. An experience is simply a collection of sensory perceptions: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. One may use the agreement of these senses to explain an idea as an objective reality; this is called coherence. Ironically, he or she may then use the objective reality to explain the agreement of the senses; this is called correspondence. This creates a catch 22, where one idea relies on the existence of the same idea to prove itself. This is commonly found when a large group of people share common beliefs, such as in a religion or political party. For example, Christians may claim that 2.2 billion people believe in the same God because He is true, but in reality they believe He is true