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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page overview of the manner in which these nineteenth century philosophers explained matter. By kicking a stone Johnson refutes Berkeley’s contention that matter does not exist and that the world is composed solely of mental substances (mind and ideas). Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPmtphys.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Berkeleys Metaphysics In the eighteenth century philosopher George Berkeley made the astounding contention that matter does not exist that the world is
composed solely of mental substances (mind and ideas). In effect Berkeley was rejecting rationalism, one view of the nature of human knowledge. Wilson (1999) notes:
"Broadly speaking, empiricists hold that all of our knowledge derives from our sensory, experiential, or empirical interaction with
the world. Rationalists, by contrast, hold the negation of this, that there is some knowledge that does not derive from experience".
This summation is really almost too simplistic, however. Whereas philosophers like John Locke held that the mind was formed by sensory experiences
of the physical world around us, Berkeley held that in actuality the physical world was formed by our minds, that it did not exist in the absence of human thought.
He argued against the contention of other philosophers of his time that our sensory experience is either caused by material things or of material things. Berkeleys philosophical stance
of immaterialism or idealism simply denied the existence of matter all together. Johnsons Metaphysics
Berkeleys contentions on metaphysics were not to go unchallenged by any means. Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth century writer, kicked a stone and claimed
that he refuted Berkeley in so doing. Johnson was claiming, in effect, that matter was because matter is. In kicking a stone Johnson was contending that the very
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