A few listeners have pointed us at Melvyn Bragg's recent podcast on Berkeley (listen to it here). It starts off with the oft-cited anecdote about Samuel Johnson claiming to have refuted Berkeley by kicking a stone: obviously, such a stone that I can kick is not an "idea in my head." As should have been clear from our episode (and my recent post), this is an elementary Continue Reading …
Episode 89: Berkeley: Only Ideas Exist!
On Bishop George Berkeley's Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713). While only a goon would deny the real existence of things like tables and chairs, does "real" existence have to mean existence as matter, i.e. as something that could exist in the absence of any mind to think about it? Berkeley says no! Tables and chairs are ideas! But not just my ideas, or Continue Reading …
Precognition of Ep. 89: Berkeley’s Idealism
Wes Alwan introduces George Berkeley's Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous. Listen to the full PEL episode. Continue Reading …
Topic for #89: Bishop George Berkeley’s Empiricist Idealism
Listen to Wes's introduction and summary to this text. On Tuesday 2/18/14 we recorded our episode on George Berkeley. Berkeley is the middle of the three "modern" (i.e. he lived in the early 1700s) empiricists that folks generally have to read in philosophy classes, the first being John Locke and the last being David Hume. We tried to cover the important parts of this Continue Reading …