Essay - Philosophy: Berkeley, Locke and Descartes Philosophy Question 1: Berkeley, Descartes...

Philosophy: Berkeley, Locke and Descartes

***** Question 1: Berkeley, Descartes, Locke

According to the idealist philosopher George Berkeley, what humans think of as ***** 'real' world does not 'really' exist at all. In other words, the world that the escaped refugees from the Matrix are living in is no more 'real' or exterior to the mind than the created world ***** ***** *****. The people of the Matrix simply live in a fictive computer gener*****ted *****, but human beings have always *****d in a so-c*****ed world ***** is 're*****lly' populated by objects that are creations of the ***** ***** senses. Their senses ***** simply being acted upon in a different fashion in the age ***** computers. If watching the film, ***** would say that the ***** ***** ***** a dramatization of what is already the case, in reality. All sensible ***** are perceived by the senses, thus they ***** objects of the mind (Downing, 2004). It would ***** matter if a person *****ok ***** red or the blue pill.

Descartes, the rationalist *****, focused not on sensory ***** as proof of the ***** outside of the mind, but of the fact ***** we were thinking beings in general, hence his famous contention, 'I think therefore I am.' He was skeptical about the possibility of knowing anything for certain, ***** used that skepticism as a touchstone to prove the *****ence of God through ***** process ***** thought. The mind w*****s the origin of consciousness, ***** body just an extension of the ***** (Smith, 2004). Thus, like Berkeley Descartes would say that ***** Matrix world was not so awful, although he might have objections, unlike Berkeley, ***** the engineering of a world that ***** not created by God. Although both Berkeley and Descartes are Christians, Christian thought and the idea of delusions generated by demons would be far ***** disturbing to Descartes, given the focus of proving ***** existence ***** God in his works. Descartes would thus finally say to chose the red pill, or ***** real world.

Locke alone ***** be disturbed by the ***** of the Matrix and say—take the red ***** in no un***** terms. First of all, Locke believed in ***** existence ***** objects with external properties, substances ***** ***** ourselves, of which God was one (Uzgalis, 2007). Objects had primary qualities ***** an *****dependent of the observer, like mass, motion, texture, etcetera, as opposed to subjective ***** like color, taste, ***** smell. As the Matrix ***** was wholly subjective, it ***** therefore a f*****lse world and ***** should seek to escape it, as it shut a ***** out ***** full participation in a world ***** extern*****l substances, including *****, and al***** the primary qualities of other objects. The Matrix world w***** entirely a *****orld of secondary properties. Furthermore, because of ********** stress upon human freedom, having one's body and perceptions controlled and determined ***** an external entity like a tyrant would be horr*****ying to the philosopher.

Question 2 Opinion

On an emotional level, it is hard *****t