Essay about Analysing Berkleys Response to Skepticism

Berkeley`s states that everything is an idea and that there has to be a supreme spirit (god) out there that has the ability to put ideas in our mind. Thus, being the one who controls everything that we are able think. The way that I understood Berkeley`s argument is that he believes that the existence of â€Å"God† is essential in order to know anything from the external world. Comprehending Berkeley`s argument wasn’t an easy task, but I have come to my personal conclusion that this so called; â€Å"Supreme spirit† is not necessary for me to have knowledge about the things that I can observe. Therefore in this paper, I will argue that Berkeley`s response to skepticism is not successful because he thinks that god is the base of knowledge. Before I†¦show more content†¦This is the reason why Berkeley is determine to prove his argument by stating that everything is an idea. From beginning to end all Berkeley does is talk about ideas and their origin. Berkel ey`s response to skepticism is built on his argument â€Å"To be is to be perceived†, what he implies with that is that in order for something to exist it needs to be perceived by an observer. In other words it wouldn’t make any sense if something was real but wasn’t perceived, because if its not perceive how will you know it exists in the first place? I feel that this is probably one of his strongest arguments in the whole response. In addition, he claims that there has to be a higher being (god) who has the ability to control what we think because we have no power on what we perceive. I personally agree with part of Berkeley`s argument, he is very right when he says that everything is an idea. At the end of the day everything interacts with our mind, all of it is just an idea that we can`t control. For example, look at your left hand even if you close your eyes and wish for it to disappear, when you open your eyes again that left hand will be there. This is wh at I mean when I say â€Å"we don’t have the ability to control what we perceive†. Even if it’s not in our control when it comes to the things that we sense or observe, saying that god has authority over that is foolish. You cannot claim that something is true without having strong evidence or at least having a strong argument