Differences Between Hylas And Philonous By George Berkeley

George Berkeley was a famous British Empiricist and in 1713, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, is a famous theory that propose the idealism and immaterialism (Daniel E. Flage). In the dialogues Hylas argues that matters are real and Philonous counter argue that there are no matters, saying that there are no “material substance” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Therefore, Philonous is arguing for Berkeley position and Hylas are people who believe in materialism and against idealism. Berkeley sums up his argument for idealism and immaterialism by using God’s existence as the cause of our sensory ideas. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that 1) Ideas are manifestly passive, 2) But because of the mind-dependent status of idea, they cannot have any characteristics which they are not perceived to have. Therefore, 3) ideas are passive, that is, they possess no causal power (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). However, the argument of a higher being or spirit are the reason material substances exist is just absurd.

First, what happen if two people perceive things differently? For example, if one person is color blind and the color blind person perceive the information of the object different than the people who are not color blind. Since Berkeley formulate a structure saying that object are

Are there only truly one God? There are other beliefs in different cultures and countries. So, this argument seems unreasonable for people who never fully understand the bible. So how about people who do not understand the concept of God or spirit? There are lots of people in the world that does not acknowledge God or spirit, so without knowing God, Berkeley is saying that people who do not believe in God does not exist. However, ironically it is these people that do not think God exist. Also, there is a question of is this does this actually exist? How can we prove that God exist? What does he or she looks