00:00Hello and warm greetings to all.
00:03To exist is to be perceived, or to be perceived is to exist.
00:08This is the basic general rule that summarizes George Berkeley's philosophy, that is, subjective idealism, which some also call religious empiricism.
00:17At the outset, it is important to say that George Berkeley wanted to combat the materialistic philosophy that was spreading in his time at the expense of religion, faith, and theological philosophy, and which he believed promoted atheism.
00:34So Berkeley wanted to attack materialism by destroying its foundation, the concept of matter.
00:40The basic features of his philosophy show that all existence consists of a perceiving mind and perceived ideas.
00:48A perceiving mind and perceived ideas.
00:51These ideas are nothing other than the world and the things in it.
00:56The mind or consciousness of man is by its nature spiritually internal and encounters an external spiritual nature of the world.
01:04There is therefore an internal spiritual nature, namely the mind or consciousness, and an external spiritual nature, the world.
01:11Since the mind as a thought can only deal with something that resembles itself, the similar only understands the similar.
01:20Thus Berkeley denies the existence of a material world and claims that things have no material substances.
01:25This means, of course, that this world of ideas only exists if there is a mind that perceives it, for everything that exists is ideas and only a mind can grasp them.
01:37A thing therefore only exists if it is perceived by a mind.
01:43If it is not perceived, then quite simply it does not exist.
01:47Before we pass judgment on this strange theory, let us ask Berkeley a few questions.
01:51Allow me to slip into Berkeley's shoes here to defend his ideas in his own voice.
01:58How did you arrive at this strange theory?
02:01I start from a basic principle.
02:03Our senses, that is, sensory experience, are the main source of our knowledge of the world.
02:08But the senses only provide us with sensations, color, shape, taste, smell, touch, and so on.
02:16These sensations form in my mind into ideas, into mental images.
02:21That is all I know of the world.
02:24But among these images there is no image of a material substance.
02:28I have an image of color, shape, sound, and so on, but no image of matter.
02:34How can I then claim that I perceive something material?
02:37That would be a claim without any proof.
02:41Let us take the table in front of me as an example.
02:44I have an image of its color, its shape, its surface, and so on, but not a single image that shows matter.
02:52My senses do not perceive matter, only ideas, only representations.
02:57What enters my mind are ideas, not material tables.
03:01So in perception we only recognize units of consciousness,
03:04and there is no indication that these contents are material.
03:08And besides, who really knows the material substance of things?
03:13Locke himself said that we do not know the essence of matter.
03:17Kant clearly stated that we cannot know things in themselves at all.
03:20So why do we insist that there are material substances?
03:26Perhaps matter is a mere error or a mere construct in our minds.
03:31Another objection.
03:33So the world is just ideas in our minds and there is no objective external world.
03:38Answer.
03:38Of course not.
03:39I am not close to denying the external world.
03:43But the world exists as ideas, not as matter.
03:46Please note, I am not denying the existence of the world, but the existence of matter.
03:53But where then do all these sensations come from if not from material things?
03:57Answer from God.
03:59God is the cause of all ideas, all qualities and it is also he who supplies our minds with
04:04the ideas that we call things.
04:07He is the reason for the connection between our minds and the world of ideas.
04:11And if all minds disappear, does the world also disappear?
04:15Basically yes, what is perceived exists, what is not perceived does not.
04:21But don't worry, the world continues to exist because it is constantly perceived by the divine
04:26mind.
04:26The famous objection.
04:28I refute Barclay by kicking a stone.
04:32Whoever said that simply misunderstood the theory.
04:35I am not denying the existence of the stone.
04:38I am only saying that its hardness is an idea.
04:40Pain is an idea.
04:43And the proof is that someone with nerve damage feels no pain, even if they kick it a thousand
04:48times.
04:50Other examples also show that properties do not exist in the things themselves.
04:55Put one hand in hot water, the other in cold, and then both in lukewarm water.
05:00One hand feels hot, the other cold.
05:02Can water be hot and cold at the same time?
05:05Of course not.
05:06So these properties only exist in our minds, not in the things themselves.
05:11What does science say about this today?
05:14Much confirms me.
05:16The world has no colors.
05:17The brain creates them.
05:19Things have no sound.
05:21The brain translates air vibrations.
05:24There is no taste or smell as such.
05:26Matter itself consists of 99.99%.
05:29Empty space.
05:31Isn't that very close to the idea that matter is a mere belief?
05:35Not to mention modern hypotheses such as hologram universes, simulation theories, and so on.
05:42All of this is surprisingly close to my thoughts, at least in part.
05:45Thank you very much and goodbye.
05:47Goodbye.
Commentaires