Idealism+(Berkeley)+&+Whatever,+Ben

George Berkeley also known as Bishop Berkeley was a philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory contends that individuals can only know directly sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter".As a young man, Berkeley theorized that individuals cannot know if an object //is//; they can only know if an object //is perceived// by a mind. He stated that individuals cannot think or talk about an object's //being//, but rather think or talk about an object's //being perceived// by someone. That is, individuals cannot know any "real" object or matter "behind" the object as they perceive it, which "causes" their perceptions. He thus concluded that all that individuals know about an object is their perception of it. Under his theory, the object a person perceives is the only object that the person knows and experiences. If individuals need to speak at all of the "real" or "material" object, the latter in particular being a confused term that Berkeley sought to dispose of, it is this perceived object to which all such names should exclusively refer. This raises the question whether this perceived object is "objective" in the sense of being "the same" for humans. In fact, is the concept of "other" human beings, beyond an individual's perception of them, valid? Berkeley argued that since an individual experiences other humans in the way they speak to him —something which is not originating from any activity of his own —and since he learns that their view of the world is consistent with his, he can believe in their existence and in the world being identical or similar for everyone.