10/25/02
Berkeley:
"What happens to things when no-one is looking at them, do they pop out of existence?"
Hylas says "That's absurd!"
-#1. Even if no one is perceiving the things, they mat be thinking about them.
-#2. God always perceives all things
(the world of ideas is kept in existence by the mind of god)
-Berkeley is an extreme empiricist which leads to his idealistic stance
(everything is mental and spiritual)
-reductio ad absurdum- or reductio arguments
-Berkeley tries to make himself out to be a friend of common sense.
-idealism- only the mental exists
-phenomenalism- terms in ordinary language that refer to collections of sensed qualities (actual and possible), not material substances
-phenomenalism is concluded by idealism
-or, there is no reason to belive beyond the properties that words give things.
Hume:
-empericist
-views= Berkley's minus god, minds, and cause and effect
Progression Of Empericist's Beliefs:
#1. Locke-God, Minds, Ideas, Material World, Cause and Effect
#2. Berkeley- God, Minds, Ideas, Cause and Effect(but only as free will; intentional)
#3 Hume-aims skeptical arguments Berkeley used against material substances at the mind.
He is left only with the mind or (IDEAS)
Note: Notice that empericism gets more radical or skeptical as it progresses