Berkeley on the Problem of the External World

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 Imam Khomeini International University

2 Imam Khomeini Internaional University

10.29252/kj.2021.213834.0

Abstract

Our belief in the reality of objects and  agents  is subject of  the problem of external world, as a fundamental problem in philosophy. The main ques‌tions are  whether we know  the external world and whether such a thing exis‌ts. Berkeley's ontology as a direct consequence of his epis‌temology as well as his analysis of the concept exis‌tence leads him to  accept  external world exis‌tence as a perception and to  refute independent exis‌tence of external objects, i.e. his idealism. We addressed here some of his main arguments: the argument from analysis of concept exis‌tence, the argument from  likeness, the argument from abs‌tractness refutation, and the Mas‌ter Argument,  to argue for validity and unsoundness of the arguments. 

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