Esse est Percipi - ('To be is to be perceived')

houses mountains rivers trees they're all out there even though no one's there to see them right possibly but according to George Berkeley if they are still there when we're not looking it's not for the reason that most of us think it is Bishop Berkeley argued for a materialism the view that there is no such thing as matter all that exists in the world are our ideas and perceiving minds this sounds absurd but it's a subtler view than dr. Johnson thought when learning of Bartley's position he kicked a stone and declared I refuse him thus Barkley would have expected Johnson's toad to connect the stone and to hurt but his point was that what we call matter is really just actual and possible sensory experience including the experience of stubbing your toe there are lots of ways you can experience a stone see it smell it touch it kick it but Berkeley didn't think that there was a material object lurking beyond the sensory properties causing them the stone just was the experience to be is to be perceived or in Latin si s / Kippy what about that tree falling in a forest with no one to see it her here is that's not perceived so does it exist well Berkeley thought the tree does really fall and not just because there were probably leave insects and birds around perceiving it a deeply religious man he thought that God perceives everything so everything continues to exist when nobody's looking because God always has his eye on it you

Channel: BBC Radio 4

Views: 86,929

Rating: 4.9398732 out of 5

Keywords: Esse Est Percipi Aut Percipere, George Berkeley (Author), Aidan Turner (TV Actor), Existence (Quotation Subject)

Id: 9iBryNYU49Y

Length: 1min 50sec (110 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 06 2015