George Berkeley and Idealism

Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685–1753) is notable for his advancement of idealism. He argues that matter doesn’t exist, only mind. And to legitimate his point, he sets out from the dualist accounts of his contemporaries Rene Descartes and John Locke.

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Rene Descartes and John Locke both accept that three substances exist: mental (ideas), material (matter), and infinite (god). They differ in their understanding of which of these substances is fundamental. Descartes argues for an a priori account of the world, arguing that innate ideas and God precede experience and material reality. Locke, on the other hand, argues for the a posteriori doctrine, stating that God and ideas are necessary due to the existence of the material world. Nonetheless, both Lock and Descartes argue that an external material world exists outside the mind.

Locke constructs the relationship between the mind and material world in three steps:

• First, the material world and its primary and secondary properties cause ideas to form in the mind.
• Second, these ideas come to represent the material world.
• Third, the mind causes changes in physical reality through bodily movement (e.g. moving my arm to do a task).

George Berkeley was unsatisfied with Locke’s explanation. He refutes each of these three assertions in the following ways:

• First: The existence of an object is independent of our perception of its properties. Locke argues that there exists an underlying glue that is imperceptible that contributes to the existence of the object, and hence, our ability to perceive it. But, without being able to perceive this glue, we also cannot conclude that it is there. Therefore, the empiricism account of existence is inconsistent
• Second: An idea cannot represent the material world. To represent, it also must resemble. But an idea does not resemble matter. For example, I can sit in a material chair, but I cannot sit in the idea of a chair. Therefore, the predicate “represents” is incomplete and therefore cannot be used to make relations between the realms of the mind and matter.
• Third: Mental events cannot cause physical events. The two realms (mind and matter) are completely independent. If it weren’t we’d be able to think changes in the world without resorting to bodily actions. Therefore, it’s impossible to argue that there exists a connection between the mental and physical worlds.

By making these arguments, Berkeley refutes Locke’s explanation of dualism. Berkeley thus concludes that the world is not dualist, but monist: it only consists of either matter or mental events. However, if it simply consisted of matter, how would we explain our faculty to think? Therefore, Berkeley concludes that the world consist of purely ideas: this is his idealism.

Berkeley further argues that God (the infinite mind) causes finite minds (people) to coordinate their perceptions. We experience the world in a consistent framework because God has made it so. There is no underlying material reality that holds things together, but instead, God’s infinite mind coordinates finite minds to establish how we come to understand the “material” world.