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
11. Again, _great_ and _small_, _swift_ and _slow_, are allowed to exist
nowhere without the mind(547); being entirely relative, and changing as
the frame or position of the organs of sense varies. The extension
therefore which exists without the mind is neither great nor small, the
motion neither swift nor slow; that is, they are nothing at all. But, say
you, they are extension in general, and motion in general. Thus we see how
much the tenet of extended moveable substances existing without the mind
depends on that strange doctrine of _abstract ideas_. And here I cannot
but remark how nearly the vague and indeterminate description of Matter,
or corporeal substance, which the modern philosophers are run into by
their own principles, resembles that antiquated and so much ridiculed
notion of _materia prima_, to be met with in Aristotle and his followers.
Without extension solidity cannot be conceived: since therefore it has
been shewn that extension exists not in an unthinking substance, the same
must also be true of solidity(548).
12. That _number_ is entirely the creature of the mind(549), even though
the other qualities be allowed to exist without, will be evident to
whoever considers that the same thing bears a different denomination of
number as the mind views it with different respects. Thus, the same
extension is one, or three, or thirty-six, according as the mind considers
it with reference to a yard, a foot, or an inch. Number is so visibly
relative, and dependent on men’s understanding, that it is strange to
think how any one should give it an absolute existence without the mind.
We say one book, one page, one line, &c.; all these are equally units,
though some contain several of the others. And in each instance, it is
plain, the unit relates to some particular combination of ideas
_arbitrarily_ put together by the mind(550).
13. Unity I know some(551) will have to be a simple or uncompounded idea,
accompanying all other ideas into the mind. That I have any such idea
answering the word _unity_ I do not find; and if I had, methinks I could
not miss finding it; on the contrary, it should be the most familiar to my
understanding, since it is said to accompany all other ideas, and to be
perceived by all the ways of sensation and reflexion. To say no more, it
is an _abstract idea_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account