BQ14

Class Responses and Instructor Comments

>From isaac katzburg:

words are what we have to distinguish ideas. each word refers to an idea. a chair refers to a object that has four legs at the corners of a flat horizontal place with a vertical back on one side. since nothing exists physically according to Berkeley and everything exists only in the mind than a word can't refer to anything other than an idea.

>rm says: Note that Berkeley is criticzing Locke's position that words have to stand for ideas, which stand for objects. This is how, according to Berkeley, Locke gets entangled in the doctrine of abstract ideas, thinking that a word like 'man' or 'triangle' must stand for an abstract general idea, which must correspondingly denote an object. For Berkeley, words can be jsut names, and nothing more.

Berkeley Reading Guide 14. For Berkeley, what do words signify?		Back to Berkeley Reading Guide Back to Philosophy 101 Home Next Question
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