George Berkeley’s Three Dialogues

In the book, Principle of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues, the philosopher, George Berkeley illustrates how materialism is baseless, therefore, that leads to doubt as he proclaims in the first dialogue. Also, makes up his own view of the world in the second and third dialogue where morality is his main focus. In his point of view, everything that exists in the world are just ideas and that is how the mind understand it. The mind with that has no limits is known as only God. Berkeley points out his ideas in the first two dialogues and then he uses the third dialogue to stand up for his true beliefs as a philosopher. His beliefs or ideas mainly consist of an argument against materialism. For example, Berkeley believes that through our senses, we can distinguish something immediately. Berkeley trusts that all of our knowledge comes from our senses. In conclusion, since the only way one has of getting knowledge is through his or her senses, he then believes that there are only two options for coming to know about mind independent material objects. First, one does not quickly understand the mind independent material objects. Second, one has no reason to believe in the actuality of mind independent material objects. Therefore, Berkeley ultimately trusts that its not that mind independent objects that do not exist, it is the fact that one has no reason to believe that it truly does exist. Cleverly, he sort of uses irony to show that he does believe that mind independent material objects do exist through our senses, by saying that mind independent material objects do not or cannot exist. Berkeley’s three dialogue argues the idea of how an object is able to exist outside of the mind is beyond reason. I completely agree with Berkeley’s way of understanding as a philosopher. Our minds allow us to grasp what is real through our God given senses. It is not an illusion, it is not a dream, and it is not being altered by a demon or by God as other philosophers believe. It is our senses and our minds that help us understand what truly exists. In my point of view, it is impossible to try to understand or see if an object exists without using one’s mind. If one tries to understand something without uses his or her mind, then it is irrelevant because the object or mind independent material object is already implanted in our minds. The reason why one is able to argue about the existence of an object is because it is already in his or her mind to begin with. For example, if I am able to doubt the existence of an object, like a cell phone, an apple, or any other object, then it exists because that cell phone, apple, or any other object is already placed in my mind. That is the reason why I was able to doubt the existence of a mind independent material object in the first place.

 

About hibakreidie

My name is Hiba Kreidie. I am 18 years old. A freshmen at Houston Baptist. & I love to laugh. (:
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2 Responses to George Berkeley’s Three Dialogues

  1. lanierjn says:

    I liked your explanation of everything, I was finally able to get a small hold on what Berkeley is trying to say. I also liked the example that you used at the end, it is the object that we are in contact with through out our lives that we know exist because we have experienced them and to us there is no question that they do. We use our senses everyday to experience life and to test for reality, if we could not use all or some of them we would always be wondering of the world around us. It is the reassurance of the reality around us through our senses that tells us we are real. The idea that there is something greater tells us that there has to be, because if there wasn’t the idea would not be there.

  2. munozrichard says:

    I like how you explained the book in great detail I now understand what Berkeley it talking about you give great detail and know i feel that i better understand the book and I like how you give your own opinion and talk about what you think of the book I really enjoyed reading this blog and by reading this I feel that i can do better because i know what to talk about and i can better understand the teacher and know what he is talking about

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