Free Summarizer
Daily · Philosophy

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

George Berkeley · philosophical dialogue, 1713·3 hrs in the original·original at Project Gutenberg
The 30‑second version3 hrs → 50 sec
  • Philonous flips the "sceptic" charge back on Hylas. Hylas opens by calling the denial of matter "the most extravagant opinion that ever entered into the mind of man." Philonous makes him define "sceptic" first, then asks: "How cometh it to pass then, Hylas, that you pronounce me A SCEPTIC, because I deny what you affirm, to wit, the existence of Matter?"
  • A burn is used to prove heat exists only in a mind. Philonous gets Hylas to agree that intense heat felt near a fire is "one simple sensation," identical with the pain it causes. Hylas concedes: "A very violent and painful heat cannot exist without the mind."
  • The brain, examined closely, turns out to be just another idea. When Hylas explains sensation through vibrations reaching the brain, Philonous points out the brain itself is a sensible thing and therefore exists only in the mind. Hylas folds: "I now clearly see it was a mere dream. There is nothing in it."
  • Berkeley converts his own theory into proof of God. Since sensible things keep existing when no human perceives them, Philonous argues they must be perceived by an infinite mind: "SENSIBLE THINGS DO REALLY EXIST; AND, IF THEY REALLY EXIST, THEY ARE NECESSARILY PERCEIVED BY AN INFINITE MIND: THEREFORE THERE IS AN INFINITE MIND OR GOD."
  • By dialogue three, Hylas has swung to total doubt. Overnight he decides "we know nothing" and that colour and weight in gold tell us nothing of its real nature, comparing such reasoning to judging two men different species "because their clothes were not of the same colour."
  • The book ends on a fountain, not a final proof. Hylas keeps the word "matter" but empties it of independent existence, and Philonous compares the whole argument to water forced up by a fountain: rising toward scepticism and falling back, by the same principle, into common sense.
Summarized by FreeSummarizer.com

•Why it earns a slot

Why it earns a slot: it is the rare philosophy text that argues by ambush, using a burn, a brain, and a fountain instead of formal syllogisms to talk a confident materialist out of his own position.

Two men argue in a garden until the one denying matter exists turns out to be the only one still trusting his own senses.

This distillation is written from the freely available original, which is always the better read when you have the time: Project Gutenberg.

Want the 30-second version of your own documents?

Summarize Pro batches your PDFs, papers and reports into this exact format, every key claim cited to its source page.

Get 25 free Pro pages →

More from the archive

Studies in Pessimism/daily/studies-in-pessimismThe World as Will and Idea, Vol. 1/daily/the-world-as-will-and-idea-vol-1Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Volume 1/daily/lectures-on-the-history-of-philosophy-volume-1The Critique of Practical Reason/daily/the-critique-of-practical-reason