Monday, October 21, 2019
What You See Is What You Get?
Berkeley argues that skepticism is only possible if there is a distinction between appearance and reality. Furthermore, he claims that that distinction collapses once we deny the existence of material substance. Given these two premises, he concludes that skepticism in false. But is he correct? Does the distinction between appearance and reality collapse if idealism is true? Is it possible for God to perceive an object differently than me? Does that possibility redrawn the line between appearance and reality? Are there other problems with this argument?
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Berkeley makes an argument where he disproves skepticism and proves idealism. He states that
ReplyDeleteDue to belief of material substances you can distinguish between reality + appearances
Appearances can be deceptive
Therefore, we can't distinguish between reality + appearances
Therefore, we could be dreaming and the world could be false
However if you believe everything is in your mind, you have no possibility to be deceived
Because everything you believe in your mind must be true
In this argument, Berkeley states that skepticism is false because the distinction between reality and appearances collapses because appearances can be deceptive. He proposes his idea of idealism which states that there can be no such thing as false perceptions in the mind. However, there actually are false perceptions. I believe that Berkeley is incorrect in this argument. The problem lies in the last line. I believe that everything that you believe in your mind is not necessarily true. For example, some drugs such as hallucinogens can make you believe that what you are seeing is true. These drugs can convince you in all certainty that what you are hearing, seeing or in some other way perceiving, is completely and undoubtedly real. However, another person in a normal functioning state of mind will tell you that the perceptions are false. Furthermore, once you recover from your modified state, you will also agree that some of those perceptions could not be. When your perception is modified in this way, idealism, or the belief that everything exists in the mind, really fails to distinct between appearances and reality. When under the influence, reality and appearances can blend together and become one thing. Therefore, it would be impossible to tell the difference.