Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. This paper will arugue that abstract ideas are possible and disprove Philonous claims.
In Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, Berkeley attempts to show that believing in mind-independent matter leads to absurdity and skepticism. Berkeley invites us to accept instead the doctrine of idealism, where the only things that exist are minds and ideas. Philonous - the spokesperson for Berkeley's considered view - uses several different kinds of argument to convince Hylas of idealism. In this paper I will investigate one type of argument that Philonous offers. Philonous …
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…words to formulate the question with. So the animal, as an idea, must be in her mind before she utters the words of the question. I conclude that abstract ideas - construed as cores of ideas - are not merely words. Further, I conclude that Hylas has a more promising strategy in resisting idealism by defending abstract ideas than Berkeley allows.
References
Berkeley, George. (1994/1713) Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous. R. Adams, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett.
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