ble objects, those which can be immediately perceived, exist only in the mind. He starts by proving that secondary or external qualities exist only in the mind by use of the Relativity of Perception Argument. As an example, Berkeley writes that if you make one of your hands hot and the other cold, and put them into a vessel of water, the water will seem cold to one hand and warm to the other. Since the water can not be warm and cold at the same time, it must follow that heat, a secondary quality, must only exist in the mind. Berkeley also uses the qualities of taste, sound, and color as examples to prove that all secondary qualities must reside in the mind. However, Berkeley also says the same argument can be applied to primary or "intrinsic" qualities. He writes that his own foot might seem a considerable dimension, but to smaller creatures, that same foot might seem very large. Since an object can not be different sizes at the same time, it follows that extension must exist only in the mind. Further, since all other primary characteristics can not be separated from extension, they too must exist only in the mind. As for what I believe about this argument, I don't totally believe it. It makes perfect logical sense the way that he obtains many of the arguments, and while they are all built on a foundation that is strong for Descartes, himself, I do not always share the foundations that he believes in. The way that he explains it is not the only possible conclusion and it seems like he is limiting himself in his search for truth in that he does not explore the fact that maybe there is no perfect being. Just because we are not perfect certainly does not mean that there is true perfection somewhere and the idea of perfection that we have is more or less a fuzzy one and because of the fact that it is different for everyone, there might not be a true absolute definition of what it really is. While Descartes' proof is very interesting in how ...
