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Posted by voiddweller on May 25, 19103 at 00:12:01:
In Reply to: Locke and Berkeley posted by Mike Riekena on March 13, 19101 at 19:32:23:
Locke was a materialist, and berkely was an idealist. Locke believed that the ultimate reality of something consists of the physical material that makes up. Paper is make up of wood, wood is make up of molecules, the molecules are made up of atoms, the atoms are made up of electrons, nuetrons, protons, the electrons are made up of quarks. Basically the fundamental existance of an object is the first thing that makes up all the other things (possibly quarks, possibly god).
Berkely believed that the fundamental existance of a thing is made up of thoughts, ideas of conscious beings. The ultimate reality of a thing is made up of the ideas of human beings.
Basically things cannot exist outside of the ideas of humans. But what of life before humans, and what about the parts of the universe that humans have not percieved yet? DO they not exist because we don't percieve them?
Berkely said yes a thing cannot exist outside of a conscious mind, and he backed this up by saying that the reason things exist outside of a mortal's mind is because these ideas exist in the mind of god. It seems that whenever philosophers can't provide proof for their arguments they rely on the idea of god to back thier arument up. I think that is weak, and I think berkely oversimplifies metaphysics, and is an idiot.