Berkeley : Rejection of Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Qualities : According to Locke qualities are powers of substance,which produce ideas in our mind.Matter is the substratum of qualities.According to Locke there are two types of qualities – Primary and Secondary.Primary qualities are real and inseparable qualities of matter while secondary qualities are powers produced by our minds by primary qualities.These secondary qualities are merely sensations of our mind while qualities like figure , extension ,solidity e.t.c. exist in matter itself.Qualities like taste,touch,beauty and sound e.t.c. are secondary qualities.So,our knowledge is limited to our ideas only.Soul acts on them.Arranges,separates,divides,unites and relates.On this basis of our knowledge of qualities we assume external existence of matter as substance.The real point of objection for Berkeley is this matter as substance. Berkeley says that the real cause of atheism,irreligion,skepticism is this conce...
Immanuel Kant : The Critical Philosophy : Expressing his views about both rationalism and empiricism Kant says that, ‘they are justified in what they affirm,but wrong in what they deny.’According to rationalism knowledge cannot become certain and definite without innate ideas while according to empiricism it cannot be real without percepts.About rationalists Kant says that ‘they are the architect of many a world of thought without any guaranteed correspondence with reality.’According to empiricists we cannot have certain and definite knowledge through percepts while according to rationalists definite and certain knowledge is possible only by reason and innate ideas.Kant says that both are true in there assertions but wrong in there denial.Kant rightly says : ‘It was thus easy to see that each of the contending parties had been guilty of one sidedness and in order to escape this a certain means must be assumed between the extremes,but it was a much more difficult matter to ...