Principles of Human KnowledgeGeorge Berkeley
About Principles of Human Knowledge
Berkeley argues that material substance does not exist. What we call "matter" is nothing more than collections of ideas perceived by minds. To be is to be perceived (esse est percipi). The dismantles the distinction between primary and secondary qualities that Locke had maintained in the , arguing that extension, figure, and motion are just as mind-dependent as color and taste. If all we ever encounter are our own perceptions, the supposition of an unperceived material substrate is not merely unproven but incoherent.
Berkeley's idealism is not solipsism. God perceives all things continuously, which accounts for the regularity and persistence of the natural world. The laws of nature are the grammar of God's discourse with finite minds; natural signs point to their divine author.
The work is short, direct, and more rigorous than its reputation suggests. Berkeley writes against the materialist metaphysics of his age while insisting that his position better preserves common sense than the philosophers' abstractions do.