The Nature of Reality
George Berkeley: Matter Doesn’t Matter
Philosophy’s weirdest argument, but irrefutable
As you are reading this, are you sitting down? On what are you sitting? A chair, probably. Of what is the chair made? Wood? Plastic? Metal? A combination? And what does science, and common sense, tell us that these things we call wood, plastic, and metal are? We say all of these things are matter. Wood, plastic, metal, and things like chairs that are made from them, we say are all made of matter. Since Aristotle and on through Locke, everyone has believed in matter, and not just philosophers; everyone assumes that the objects of the world are made of matter. George Berkeley (1685–1753) asks a simple and surprising question: Why do we assume matter exists?
The philosophy of George Berkeley (pronounced BARK-lee) is often misunderstood and unfairly mischaracterized. Because he was a cleric, eventually a bishop, some people who are hostile to religion irrationally dismiss Berkeley’s argument as religious nonsense. Such dismissal is intellectually dishonest. Berkeley’s argument is solid and important philosophy that presents us with a dilemma that we cannot easily dismiss. His argument strikes at the core of our assumptions, calling into question how we perceive the universe and what it actually is.
