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George Berkeley's Theory: Why did he claim that the physical world is a figment of the mind?
In philosophical discussions, subjective idealism is a thought-provoking concept. This theory asserts that there are no entities other than the mind and its contents. It not only challenged the position of materialism, but also rejected dualism and neutral monism. Through this theory, George Berkeley proposed a perspective that was completely different from the traditional view of matter.
Subjective idealism believes that the existence of the material world completely depends on the subject who perceives this world.
George Berkeley was a famous advocate of this theory, and he supported his position through a series of treatises in the 18th century. His slogan "to exist is to be perceived" summed up his view, meaning that the existence of everything depends on someone perceiving it. Without an observer, matter ceases to exist.
Berkeley's philosophical views stem from an in-depth analysis of human experience. He points out that everything we perceive is actually an idea, whether the object we perceive is a house or a mountain. His doubts about the existence of matter challenged the prevailing materialist views at the time and emphasized the dominant role of the mind in the understanding of the world.
His proposition is simple but profound: everything that can be perceived has the meaning of existence.
This all goes back to Berkeley's basic belief that the existence of matter is not enough to justify its existence. More importantly, he believed that even if matter exists, we cannot be sure whether it is independent of our perception. His perspective subtly provokes a rethinking of the existing world.
Historically, Berkeley's theory is not an isolated example. Its line of thinking can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Augustine, who both explored the relationship between perception and reality. Plato's metaphor of the cave, in particular, clearly depicts how humans can be bewildered by phenomena, echoing the importance of perception mentioned by Berkeley.
However, Berkeley's theory has also attracted a lot of criticism. Prominent philosophers, including some modern thinkers and critics, have questioned his conclusions. They argue that using perception alone as a criterion of existence is too simplistic and fails to explain how we gain knowledge about the physical world.
Critics point out that the distinction between perceptual and material nouns is not that clear, and that many people often distinguish between objects and awareness of objects in their daily lives.
Berkeley's anti-materialism challenged the previous understanding of material existence, but also triggered a philosophical storm. Many later philosophers, such as Kant, attempted to build on his position to more complex theories, arguing that there is a mind-independent world, albeit an unknowable world. All this makes subjective idealism occupy an important position in the history of philosophy, and leads to many derivative trends of thought, such as phenomenology and subjectivism.
Today, Berkeley's views still inspire people to reflect on the meaning of existence. Is the meaning of matter just an image in our mind? In this information-rich era, faced with countless observations and perceptions, how should we understand the relationship between mind and matter?
While exploring Berkeley's subjective idealism, we should perhaps reflect on a fundamental question: If the material world is essentially just an illusion of the mind, how should we view our daily practices and experiences?
