A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human KnowledgeBerkeley, George
Philosophy
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
Berkeley, George
Idealism; Knowledge, Theory of; Soul
114. As the place happens to be variously defined, the motion which is
related to it varies. A man in a ship may be said to be quiescent with
relation to the sides of the vessel, and yet move with relation to the
land. Or he may move eastward in respect of the one, and westward in
respect of the other. In the common affairs of life men never go beyond
the earth to define the place of any body; and what is quiescent in
respect of that is accounted absolutely to be so. But philosophers, who
have a greater extent of thought, and juster notions of the system of
things, discover even the earth itself to be moved. In order therefore to
fix their notions they seem to conceive the corporeal world as finite,
and the utmost unmoved walls or shell thereof to be the place whereby
they estimate true motions. If we sound our own conceptions, I believe we
may find all the absolute motion we can frame an idea of to be at bottom
no other than relative motion thus defined. For, as has been already
observed, absolute motion, exclusive of all external relation, is
incomprehensible; and to this kind of relative motion all the
above-mentioned properties, causes, and effects ascribed to absolute
motion will, if I mistake not, be found to agree. As to what is said of
the centrifugal force, that it does not at all belong to circular
relative motion, I do not see how this follows from the experiment which
is brought to prove it. See Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,
in Schol. Def. VIII. For the water in the vessel at that time wherein it
is said to have the greatest relative circular motion, has, I think, no
motion at all; as is plain from the foregoing section.
115. For, to denominate a body moved it is requisite, first, that it
change its distance or situation with regard to some other body; and
secondly, that the force occasioning that change be applied to it. If
either of these be wanting, I do not think that, agreeably to the sense
of mankind, or the propriety of language, a body can be said to be in
motion. I grant indeed that it is possible for us to think a body which
we see change its distance from some other to be moved, though it have no
force applied to it (in which sense there may be apparent motion), but
then it is because the force causing the change of distance is imagined
by us to be applied or impressed on that body thought to move; which
indeed shows we are capable of mistaking a thing to be in motion which is
not, and that is all.
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