George Berkeley Research Paper

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George Berkeley lived from 6185-1753 in Ireland. He is famous for quoting “to be is to be perceived” and “if something were not perceived, it would not exist.” He defines a thing as the sum of its perceived qualities. In other words, if we do not perceive an object, it does not exist. However, an object can still exist if it is still perceived by someone else. If no human, or finite being is observing it, another infinite being is. God is infinite, so he is always perceiving objects. He is the eternal mind that can see everything. As Berkeley once said, “we exist only in the mind of God.” George Berkeley lived from 6185-1753 in Ireland. He is famous for quoting “to be is to be perceived” and “if something were not perceived, it would not exist.” He defines a thing as the sum of its perceived qualities. In other words, if we do not perceive an object, it does not exist. However, an object can still exist if it is still perceived by someone else. If no human, or finite being is observing it, another infinite being is. God is infinite, so he is always perceiving objects. He is the eternal …show more content…

He believed that experience leads to the contents of the mind. The contents of the mind lead to perceptions, and perceptions lead to forms. He believed that forms could be split into two different sections. For instance, when we touch a hot stove, it hurts. These include impression and ideas. Impressions are the original thought. Ideas are copies of impressions, or memories. These ideas make up the entirety of the mind. For instance, we remember that touching a hot stove will hurt, so we will not do it in the future. Sometimes an idea is scarier than the actual impression. Perhaps the stove is not as hot as we think and it will not hurt as bad as when it did when we first perceived it. With another example, people must have an impression of what a wing and what a horse is in order to combine the two into the idea of a