Berkeley's esse est percipi argument establishes that the concept of an unperceived material substratum is not merely unverified but positively incoherent, removing the target of the inference entirely.

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Berkeley(as the author being discussed): George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher from the 1600s-1700s who argued that physical objects don't exist independently of being perceived—they only exist because someone is thinking about or observing them.
Incoherent(describing whether moral responsibility can exist): Logically impossible or contradictory; something that cannot make sense or cannot exist at the same time as something else.
argument(Epistemology and argumentation theory; the 'evidentiary' conception of argument): An evidentiary construct consisting of (1) premises, (2) a conclusion, and (3) an inference from the premises to the conclusion, implying that the conclusion is true, likely true, plausible, or should otherwise be accepted.
esse est percipi(Berkeley's foundational ontological principle restricting existence to what is perceivable or perceived by a mind.): The existence of an idea consists in being perceived; to be is to be perceived.

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