How Many Arguments Does Berkel

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

given us. The arguments' names for the remainder of the essay will be the Continuity argument and the Independence argument (Bennett calls this argument the passivity argument, but for purely aesthetic reasons alone, I prefer to call it the independence argument). First of all, the continuity argument may be found, albeit in controversy, in §48 presented by Berkeley:
For though we hold indeed the objects of sense to be nothing else but ideas which cannot exist unperceived; yet we may not hence conclude they have no existence except only while they are perceived by us, since there may be some other spirit that perceives them, though we do not...It does not follow from the foregoing principles, that bodies are annihilated and created every moment, or exist not at all during the intervals between our perception of them.
The argument form of this statement, according to Bennett would then go as follows:
(a) Objects are collections of ideas, and therefore cannot exist when not ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

imprinted on them are not creatures of my will. There is therefore some other will or spirit that produces them.

The argument form of this statement is given by Bennett:

(a) My ideas of sense (i.e. those which I have when I perceive objective states of affairs) come into my mind without being caused to do so by any act of my will;
(b) The occurrence of any idea must be caused by the will of some being in whose mind the idea occurs;
Therefore
(c) My ideas of sense are in the mind of, and caused by the will of, some being other than myself.

Where the independence argument differs from the continuity argument is that the independence places more emphasis on the origination of ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: