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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Berkeley's argument conflates the conditions under which we can *know* objects with the conditions under which objects *exist*, committing an epistemic-to-ontological inference error.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Berkeley doesn't argue from knowledge conditions to existence conditions; he argues perception is constitutive of physical objects themselves, not just our access to them.
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    • 2.If the distinction between epistemic and ontological claims assumes a mind-independent reality, it already presupposes what Berkeley denies and needs independent justification.
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    • 3.The charge of conflation may misread Berkeley's position: he denies the existence-knowledge distinction applies to objects, making the inference non-fallacious on his framework.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Knowledge requires mental representation, but physical existence doesn't depend on being represented in any mind.
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    • 2.Berkeley assumes that because we only access objects through perception, objects cannot exist unperceived—conflating epistemic access with ontological dependence.
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    • 3.The inference 'we can only know X through ideas' does not logically entail 'X exists only as ideas,' yet Berkeley's argument moves between these claims.
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