In the book, Principle of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues, George Berkeley strongly believes that one needs his or her sensory perceptions in order to find the truth in existence. Berkeley’s way of thinking goes against all of Descartes’s beliefs in Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes believes that all sensory perceptions are just implanted ideas in one’s mind. He explains that the right way of thinking is only through extended things. Descartes believes in pure mathematical laws: shape, size, motion, and weight. On the other hand, Berkeley believes in the opposite idea: the thinking things in life. For instance, the ideas in one’s mind: color, smell, sound, taste, and feel. Berkeley makes it clear that it is necessary to use one’s senses to prove that something really does exist. However, he does not disregard the extended things, Descartes’ beliefs. Berkeley suggests that one needs the extended things, objective thing, to lead us to the thinking things, also known as the subjective things. Life experiences, subjective things, are necessary in determining wether something does exist. Berkeley cleverly states, “If I have not experienced it before, then how do I know it is out there?” (137-138). If one where to think about something, then one has experienced it. It is all in our thoughts and if you think it, then it is a thought. It is impossible to see something one has not seen without his or her senses. In conclusion, one’s senses are essential in finding something’s existence. For example, in the movie, The Miracle Worker, the main character, Helen Keller, is a deaf and blind child. She struggles daily to live a normal life. However, when she gets assigned a teacher, Annie Sullivan, life becomes not as difficult for Helen. This teacher of hers, Mrs. Sullivan, teaches her how to use her senses to determine the existence of anything she lays her hands on. Surprisingly, Helen not only realized that things do exist through her senses, but she also learned how to speak by using her senses as well. Mrs. Sullivan would teach her vocabulary by letting Helen use her hands to feel Mrs. Sullivan’s lips. In the end, she used her senses, feeling, to talk. Helen was able to make an intellectual break through just by using her senses. Helen’s many experiences with different people and different objects helped her determine their existence. Therefore, Berkeley was correct. One needs his or her senses to determine something’s existence. The reason Helen Keller had the ability to talk and live a normal life as a deaf and blind child was because, she was specifically taught to use the senses she was physically able to use. She used one of her senses, to feel, on everything she came upon. People’s lips and brail mostly. Once she had experienced these different people and objects, she was able to determine their existences. The ideas were then implanted in her head through the experiences she had herself. They were not ideas she randomly came up with, they were real life experiences.
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