The Existence Of The External World - 998 Words

In Berkeley’s argument about the existence of the external world I found it to be convincing up until a point. There were many good arguments that definitely persuaded me to agree with his viewpoints, but at the end of the passage, and at the peak of my understanding of his argument I found that his argument ended up being unconvincing and in some parts completely contradictory. In general the argument wasn’t convincing, but in the more specific areas it convinced me greatly. In the beginning of his argument it was convincing to me, because he introduces his idealism and his thoughts that things don’t exist in the external, but exist in our minds as ideas from our sensations and imaginings. I agreed with this point, being that we always†¦show more content†¦When you take away the properties of an external things you are left with nothing and with nothing you can’t have extension. This was convincing for me, because it showed me that extended thing s don’t exist because of their properties but rather they exist in their ideas and ideas aren’t extended things. Furthermore, if we have the idea in our mind that something exists then we don’t require extension. The next point that Berkeley makes is that you can’t perceive the unperceived. You can’t perceive a sensing or imagining of an object without having all of the properties that belond to it there. Furthermore, if you are not thinking if it’s certain properties then you can’t have that external thing. This part of the argument is another combatant in determining external things. If I am to think of a ring perhaps, and its properties included: it is able to be worn, more specifically, on the finger, it is made of a certain substance compound, and it is round. For argument’s sake let’s say that these are all of the properties that make up what we, by definition, call a ring. If I were to think of a ring, and not con ceive any other property about it, meaning if I were not to think of any of these properties about the ring, and say that it is a ring without those perceptions then I am perceiving an unperceived thing. In my mind I cannot fathom conceiving an object/idea/thing without correlating