Berkeley’sA Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human KnowledgeGeorge Berkeley’s A Treatise

Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) presents a form of Metaphysical Idealism which
asserts that there are two kinds of reality, idea and spirit. Ideas are real because they can be perceived.
Spirit is real because it can have ideas, and because it can perceive them.Berkeley argues that ideas are
derived from physical and mental perceptions, from memory, and from imagination. The existence of an
idea depends on its being able to be perceived. An idea does not exist unless it is perceived.According to
Berkeley, "esse est percipi" ("to be is to be perceived"). The existenceof an idea cannot be separated
from its being perceived. If an idea or object is not perceived, then it does not exist.The perceiving,
active being is referred to by Berkeley as the mind, spirit, soul, or self. The existence of a mind or spirit
consists of the ability to have ideas and to perceive them. Spirit, as it perceives ideas, is called the
understanding. Spirit, as it produces ideas, or as it mentally operates on them, is called the will
(Paragraph 27).Berkeley argues that there is no substance other than spirit. Substance is not material,
but spiritual. Matter neither perceives, nor is perceived. Therefore, matter does not exist. What we
describe as matter is only the idea derived from the sensoryperception of solidity, extension, form,
motion, or other physical properties of an object. But the object only exists if it can perceive or is
perceived, and therefore its existence is ideal or spiritual.