Commentary on Bishop Berkeley

While Bishop Berkeley's dictum "esse is percipi" is true, it is not true in the idealistic sense that Berkeley meant. Berkeley believed that reality is purely mental. He believed that matter does not exist outside of a mind, but that it is only an idea within the mind. Such an idealistic philosophy makes it difficult to understand how a fired bullet can kill someone if it is only an idea. And why does not an imagined fire burn one's fingers the same as a physical fire if both are merely ideas?

Berkeley countered these kinds of arguments by contending that God is the ultimate idealist, in that the outside world consists merely of ideas in His Mind. But if this is true, would not God's ideas be external to the finite mind precisely as matter, energy and space? The finite mind must possess two equal realities: the outside world known through perception and sensations, and the inner world of ideas and feelings.

Consciousness alone makes both of these worlds real. Even consciousness has been made real by a consciousness of itself. Otherwise, we could have no consciousness of it.

Consciousness makes real whatever it perceives merely because it perceives it, whether in the inner world or outer world. This is the precise purpose of consciousness. It matters little whether consciousness of the outside world consists of direct observation or just ideas about it, the outside world is real in either case. Reality simply does not exist without consciousness.

One may object that unperceived objects in the world continue to exist even when not perceived, and therefore, possess a reality independent of being perceived. But such a supposed unperceived real object possesses no usefulness of any kind if it remains completely unperceived. Unperceived objects can be real, but only to the extent that they affect consciousness. For example, one need not directly observe every working part of his watch in order to tell the time. A completely unperceived object cannot distinguish itself from nothing. As such, it can only be equal to nothing. Only a consciousness can distinguish it from nothing and make it useful and real. At the most, completely unperceived objects can be said to possess potential reality if it were possible that, at some time, a consciousness could perceive them.

This means reality must be a duality. Both consciousness and the objects of consciousness must exist in union for reality to exist. Since consciousness can be conscious of itself, then it can make an object of itself, and thus become real to itself as a duality to itself. But consciousness in isolation, being completely nonconscious, must also be equal to nothing and not real. However, the unconscious mind must be distinguished from the nonconscious mind. An unconscious mind is merely a conscious mind operating on automatic pilot so to speak.

Berkeley's contention that the world is real only because God perceives it is not quite right. God created the material world, but it is nevertheless real only because He perceives it. This means that God must exist, for otherwise the world would be equal to nothing if He did not create it and perceive it.