Tag: Dr. Johnson

• Was the Bishop a Complete Idiot?

  The Bishop was George Berkeley (1685-1753), and he could be blamed for the following question that’s sometimes asked – ‘Does the Moon still exist when no one is looking at it?’ This is usually dismissed as a piece of obvious nonsense – a joke rather than a serious question. Bishop Berkeley, knowing his Latin, put…

  calgacus83

  10th Jul 2022

  Consciousness, Current Affairs, Environment, Philosophy, Religion, Science

  Atoms, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, Energy, James Boswell, Reality, Religion, Science, The Mind, The Moon

• Common Sense? I

  Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) is famous, or infamous, for arguing that esse est percipi – “to be is to be perceived”. What we humans experience as material objects exist solely in our perceptions of them. In other words, there are no material objects as such, but only minds (human and divine) containing mental ‘representations’. Hence…

  calgacus83

  28th Nov 2021

  Buddhism, Consciousness, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Science

  Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, illusion, Materialism, Mind, Reality