[lit-ideas] Bishop Berkeley -- and Popper
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 19:37:05 EST
In a message dated 11/6/2004 7:56:36 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
If a tree falls
in the forest
when there's nobody
there to hear it
does it make
a sound?
Yes.
----
Geary rephrases:
>if a bush burns
>and there's, etc.
I believe R. Paul is echoing Bishop Berkeley? Berkeley thought, famously,
_esse est percipi_, and the 'tree falling' example is also mentioned by D.
Hume.
I'm not sure it can be so easily solved.
In a way it compares to the chimera bombinating in the void.
I tend to believe that things like "it smells", "it hurts", "it sucks", etc.
-- are also subject-relative percepta stratum language, as Fredriech
Waismann called it.
It does not really make sense that a rose, say, would _smell_ so sweet if
there' s no nose around. A bush burning may be different, because it's not
necessarily sound-producing, etc.
Locke distinguished between primary and secondary qualities. Things like
SIZE ('bulk' he called it) are _not_ subject-relative (he thought). But things
like "rotten" _are_.
Think of it: the whole world divides into the primary and the secondary
qualities, even if Locke was wrong about some of the examples.
Cheers,
JL
-- I add "and Popper" since possibly Popper commented on this, etc.
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