Materialism In George Berkeley's Argument

George Berkeley's primary ambitions as a philosopher are to disprove the materialist doctrines of skepticism and atheism. Although his primary focus is on disproving materialism, he also attempts to prove the existence of the human spirit. This is because the existence of the spirit is vital to maintaining a Christian world-view. One of Berkeley's most famous claims is that "to be is to be perceived." Yet, He himself admits that the soul cannot be perceived. He is then forced to create a parallel argument that both the subject of perception and the object of perception must exist. However, this affirmation does not seem to be compatible with his view of causally inert abstract objects, nor his view on empiricism. In addition, Berkeley's reasoning
Hylas says, "You admit nevertheless that there is spiritual substance, although you have no idea of it; while you deny there can be such a thing as material substance, because you have no notion or idea of it. Is this fair dealing? To act consistently, you must either admit matter or reject spirit." Berkeley's response to this argument is threefold. He states that he has no immediate intuition of material substance, whereas he does have an immediate intuition of himself. The statement is questionable, many claim to have an immediate intuition of material substance, the notion that perception is objective had been assumed by almost everyone prior to Berkeley's writings. He then argues that there is no need for material substance. However, as David Hume argues, there is no need for spiritual substance either. It is possible that what we consider to be consciousness is just a 'bundle of ideas' constantly being experienced. Berkeley's third argument states that material substance simply doesn't make sense. Here he is referring to material substance as an abstract object, that is, an object that cannot be conceived of independently of its properties. But again, it is impossible to conceive of the spirit independently of its properties. Berkeley claims, nevertheless, that his 'notion' of the spirit is valid, despite his views on abstract