The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4: Philosophical Works, 1705-21Berkeley, George
Philosophy
The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4: Philosophical Works, 1705-21
Berkeley, George
Philosophy -- Early works to 1800
96. To set this matter in a clearer light, I shall make use of an example.
Suppose the above-mentioned blind person, by his touch, perceives a man to
stand erect. Let us inquire into the manner of this. By the application of
his hand to the several parts of a human body, he had perceived different
tangible ideas; which being collected into sundry complex ones(389) have
distinct names annexed to them. Thus, one combination of a certain
tangible figure, bulk, and consistency of parts is called the head;
another the hand; a third the foot, and so of the rest—all which complex
ideas could, in his understanding, be made up only of ideas perceivable by
touch. He had also, by his touch, obtained an idea of earth or ground,
towards which he perceives the parts of his body to have a natural
tendency. Now—by _erect_ nothing more being meant than that perpendicular
position of a man wherein his feet are nearest to the earth—if the blind
person, by moving his hand over the parts of the man who stands before
him, do perceive the tangible ideas that compose the head to be farthest
from, and those that compose the feet to be nearest to, that other
combination of tangible ideas which he calls earth, he will denominate
that man erect. But, if we suppose him on a sudden to receive his sight,
and that he behold a man standing before him, it is evident, in that case,
he would neither judge the man he sees to be erect nor inverted; for he,
never having known those terms applied to any other save tangible things,
or which existed in the space without him, and what he sees neither being
tangible, nor perceived as existing without, he could not know that, in
propriety of language, they were applicable to it.
97. Afterwards, when, upon turning his head or eyes up and down to the
right and left, he shall observe the visible objects to change, and shall
also attain to know that they are called by the same names, and connected
with the objects perceived by touch; then, indeed, he will come to speak
of them and their situation in the same terms that he has been used to
apply to tangible things: and those that he perceives by turning up his
eyes he will call upper, and those that by turning down his eyes he will
call lower.
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