RE: Berkeley's argument for the existence of God
March 29, 2018 at 4:25 pm
(This post was last modified: March 29, 2018 at 4:28 pm by Mystic.)
(March 29, 2018 at 4:19 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Okay, I'll lay my cards on the table. Berkeley's mistake is that he considers thoughts as what is known; whereas, thoughts are actually the means by which we know. For example, someone can know about an apple but the thoughts by which he knows about the apple are not the apple itself.
I think this is red herring. It's not really interpreting it from the angle he meant it by. What he meant is our experience is immaterial, when we experience something like an idea, that is immaterial, right? He is saying somethings are immaterial.
Well to show what we assume is material is not material but immaterial, he says, there is no interconnection between material and immaterial. And this obvious since they are defined as opposite. When we want to imagine materialistic existence, we imagine something opposite to immaterial existence which we perceive in ourselves existing.
So how can there be an interaction between the two when they have nothing in common?
He then goes on to show things than are not material, but exist through God's mind, his perception, his speaking them into existence. And this is true. And it follows. Things can't be immaterial and spiritual without a cause. They must be constantly being caused because there is no space confinement to their existence yet they interact in a simulation we don't control and is not just a dream.