George Berkley: Contradict Idealism

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In philosophy there are many different views and contradictions about reality and what it is really is made of. One philosopher George Berkeley studied idealism which is the theory that the physical world what we know of only exists in the experiences that the mind has. Idealism is the metaphysical view that explains reality as consisting entirely of immaterial minds and their ideas. (Petrik 119) In other words Berkley believes what we know and think reality is, is all made up from our mind and ideas because reality is how we perceive things. This is also known as subjective idealism which Berkeley looks deeply into. Berkley begins to contradict idealism to be able to get a better grasp of what he truly believes in. Berkeley helps fully explain his view on subjective idealism and how he understands it by creating the “Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.” In these dialogues Hylas represents the materialistic view and Philonous represents the idealist view. Within these three dialogues there are discussions created to fully explain in detail that reality is only how we perceive it in our minds from our own ideas.
In the “Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous”, Philonous argues that along with reality being immaterial, reality is solely made up in our minds due to interactions we have with the five senses. Philonous …show more content…

He relates everything we perceive and understand through the five senses in the “Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous”. What we know and think we understand comes straight from the five senses. Berkeley helps explain that reality comes from all sensations with the example of a tomato. We all know what a tomato is from its red color, round shape, and bitter taste. It is a tomato because it is how we perceive it from the five senses and we put it into our own mind but once the tomato is gone it is only the idea of the