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
7. From what has been said it is evident there is not any other Substance
than _Spirit_, or that which perceives(535). But, for the fuller
proof(536) of this point, let it be considered the sensible qualities are
colour, figure, motion, smell, taste, and such like, that is, the ideas
perceived by sense. Now, for an idea to exist in an unperceiving thing is
a manifest contradiction; for to have an idea is all one as to perceive:
that therefore wherein colour, figure, and the like qualities exist must
perceive them. Hence it is clear there can be no unthinking substance or
_substratum_ of those ideas.
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8. But, say you, though the ideas themselves(537) do not exist without the
mind, yet there may be things like them, whereof they are copies or
resemblances; which things exist without the mind, in an unthinking
substance(538). I answer, an idea can be like nothing but an idea; a
colour or figure can be like nothing but another colour or figure. If we
look but never so little into our thoughts, we shall find it impossible
for us to conceive a likeness except only between our ideas. Again, I ask
whether those supposed _originals_, or external things, of which our ideas
are the pictures or representations, be themselves perceivable or no? If
they are, then _they_ are ideas, and we have gained our point: but if you
say they are not, I appeal to any one whether it be sense to assert a
colour is like something which is invisible; hard or soft, like something
which is intangible; and so of the rest.
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