Platonic and pragmatic sensism: George Berkeley

George Berkeley(1685-1753) is an Irelands philosopher, that has took the sensism very diffused in England then, and he has took from Plato(b.Ch. 427-347) the concept of ideas but with acceptation real, this is that we can see is real, the question inasmuch is: “Where is the Platonism?”; simple in the concept of ideas, that the Athens philosopher has taught in the word of ideas, Berkeley has took the concept but with acceptation real, this pragmatic remark is a change important regard to Platonism, the origin is the Greek philosopher but Berkeley ties it to context, very pragmatic of reality, following also the practical wit that during those centuries in England was principal, and the concept of vision of daily things is absolutely Platonic, because for the Athens philosopher the reality is a translation of the word of ideas, therefore although Berkeley didn’t mention it Plato, he is present although shrouded: “Hence as it is impossible for me  to see or feel anything without an actual sensation of that thing, so is it impossible for me to conceive in my thought any sensible thing or object distinct from the sensation or perception of it [In truth, the object and the sensation are the same thing, and cannot therefore be abstracted for each other]”; it is the pragmatic Platonism, that follows the reality, because a reality took entirely from the old concept of word of ideas, it would have denied the Christian religion, because everything is created from the God and no certainly from the word of ideas. The Platonism and the pragmatism return to after some steps: “Some truth and are so near and obvious to the mind that a man need only open  his eyes to see them. Such I take this important one to be, viz that all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth, in the word all those bodies which compose the mighty  frame of the word, have not subsistence without a mind, that their being is to be perceived by me , or do not exist or that of any other created spirit, they must  either have not existence at all or else subsist in the mind of some eternal spirit…”; it is the real sensism, because the mind has the imagines or sensations that after it translated in his intelligence, the pragmatic sensism is clear, now the rationality is dominant because Plato was again present, but in hide form, and now emerges the rationality that moderates the idealism, because the rationality is dominating. A Platonic note the words: “some eternal spirit” is the up dated version of Plato, it is the modern version of the word of ideas. The Platonism continues and now is more evident: “From what has been said it is evident there not any other substance than spirit, or that which perceives. But, for the fuller demonstration of this point, let it be considered the sensible qualities are color, figure, motion, smell, taste, and other, for example the ideas perceived by sense…”; it is the pure Platonism, the translation of ideas, that we have seen above, is in updated version; and the final words are very eulogy of Platonism: “…that therefore wherein color, figure, and other exist must perceive them: hence it is clear there can be no unthinking substance or substratum of those ideas”; the pragmatic Platonism.

Alessandro Lusana