Question

How does Locke's epistemology lead to Berkeley's subjective idealism? How would a subjective idealist live their everyday lives? Can you disprove subjective idealism, and if so, how?

Answer 1

Locke’s epistemology refers to the rejection of an external materialistic world as it points out that we could only perceive things as ideas in our minds. Berkley’s subjective idealism suggests that only minds and mental contents exists and not the material world as we see it because they exist as ideas in our minds. Subjective realism thus does not provide any importance to the stimuli around us through which we build our understanding and knowledge. In reality, we look at various stimuli in our environment that would help us navigate and live in our world. Without any exposure to the external stimuli, our mind would be an empty slate. All our knowledge, ideas, opinions and reality would be shaped with the help of the environment where one lives thus, we cannot neglect the idea of the existence of an external materialistic world.

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