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KEMAL PLG
FEL 501
ASSIGNMENT VII
FALL 2013

GEORGE BERKELEY AND A TREATI SE CONCERNI NG THE PRI NCI PLE OF HUMAN
KNOWLEDGE
George Berkeley, one of the rare well-known Irish philosophers of the era, is well known for his ideas
on subjective idealism and the abstraction criticism. Berkeleys main concentration for the mentioned
work is a huge criticism over John Lockes opinions on human perceptions nature even both
philosophers are empiricist and they paid attention to the importance of experience a great deal. His
harsh language is also assertive and somewhat convincing to many naked readers like me, who would
ask for a credible and conclusive platform to locate the ideas concerning epistemology and perception.
Even his work has brought forth numerous objections, yet they are worth giving credit and being
analyzed.
Berkeley states that existence actually relies on the relationship between whats perceived by the
perceiver. If something is regarded in existence, it has to be perceived by the perceiver. As the basic
element of knowledge for humans, it should be perceived by our sensation or ideas. Shortly, the
perceiving mind and soul is the substratum for ideas. That helps us deduce that its impossible to
separate sensed existence and perception. Claiming otherwise is roughly the abstraction of non-
abstract beings. Regarding Lockes primary (shape, amount, depth etc.) and secondary qualities (color,
taste, tactile, so on) are not independent during perception process and they can be relative, meaning
they depend on the mind of the perceiver, consequently the perceivers point of view. Remarkably,
even numbers and figures may be relative according to the perceiver. The perception without a sensory
organ and an active mind automatically unravel as a thing that is not in the mind. Mentioning
unperceived objects as perceived is analogically same as words that dont intrinsically convey any
meaning and simply create inconsistency.
While explaining ideas, Berkeley begins the source of their cause. As a usual interpretation, ideas exist
only in mind and do not possess any power to cause some sort of an effect. Also, he distinguishes
ideas as they can be either material or non-material ideas. As for non-material idea, Berkeley gives the
example of Spirit which actually possesses two primary powers which are will and spirit. While the
former perceives ideas, the latter generate ideas and neither of them can be represented by an idea.
Relevantly, Berkeley criticized mathematicians. He argued that the men of mathematical science relied
too much on abstract ideas and even such theories and calculations in particular things can be found
and counted. Also, he believed and I believe as it sounds quite logical theres no such thing as
infinite number of parts in finite quantity. Also he regarded the assumptions that there must be smaller
parts than the smallest sense parts and infinite particulars in a given finite being are not always
necessary.
Plus, he employs two categories for ideas: Strong ideas are considered as real ideas for him as they are
distinct, constant and coherent, and most importantly, they rely less on the perceiver, whereas faint
ideas are such ideas of imagination that are somehow the copies of strong ideas and dwells more on
the creation of the perceiver.
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Its clear that the concept of God sounds quite familiar to the discussions of God concept today. Since
ideas take place in spirit or mind, spirit or mind are not ideas and spirit is utterly indivisible and
thereupon, immortal. God is the sole cause of the harmony and system in nature. He also defended that
such disasters in nature are not caused by God as they are not only parts of natures consistently
working system that God had planned, but also they emphasize the beauty in nature by showing
contrasts. Thats how Berkeley regard pain as an inseparable (and should-be-inseparable) part of an
entire systems beauty when the big picture is taken into consideration. These principles consequently
reinforces the premises that Berkeley offered that mind and spirit cause nature, investigation for final
cause and purpose, the importance of observation and experiment; and observation of a particular
phenomena so as to disclose the general laws of nature and draw extra deductions from them. These
conclusions are rooted in Gods composure, goodness and grace.