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Dennis Davino told me about some scholarship opportunities for future teachers: Here's the links:

Scholarship Info
Main Braintrack site, with maybe a bit more scholarship Info

REQUIRED READING
You are required to read the following pages of the text book and the definitions and examples given on my assigned webpages. The "Helpful Questions" are here to help you understand the reading.and to anticipate the points I will be discussing in class. If you can master this material without following the reading questions, then you don't have to bother with them. However, the additional text I give on these pages is required because at least some of the points it covers will be on the tests.

Remember, you will be tested on this reading before the next lecture. Be ready to answer questions about this material.

Your reading is from Does the Center Hold? by Donald Palmer. Page numbers in blue refer to the 3rd edition, while greenish page numbers refer to the 4th edition.

Read pages 85-93 in 3rd Edition, or pages 82-90 in 4th Edition

Helpful Questions ((The number on the left is the page number in the 3rd Edition. For 4th edition, subtract a page or three.)
85. Did Berkeley think that primary qualities were really different from secondary qualities?
86. How do you establish the size and shape of a table?
86. Do we perceive primary qualities, or do we deduce them from sets of secondary qualities?
87. For Berkeley, what three kinds of things form the objects of human knowledge?
87. Is "direct knowledge of real objects gotten without use of the senses" one of those categories?
87. Are there any objects of human knowledge that are not either sense data, or arrangements of sense data?
87. What is "the given"?
88. Is there anything more to a "physical object" than the totality of its sense data?
88. According to Berkeley, are sense data mental, physical, or what?
88. What does "esse is percipi" mean?
88. What is idealism?
88. How did Dr. Johnson try to refute Berkeley?
88. Why did Dr. Johnson fail to refute Berkeley?
89. What does it mean to say that sense data appear in recognizable patterns?
89. What does that mean to say that language is used to unify these ideas in our minds?
89. Do different cultures all use the same categories to describe the world?
89. Do different people all see the world the same way? Why not?
90. What is the bridge of intersubjectivity?
90. On the bridge of intersubjectivity, how do we settle disputes about reality?
90. On the bridge of intersubjectivity, what we mean by "reality"?
91. What is Locke's version of causality?
92. What is Berkeley's version of causality?
92. How do these two versions compare and contrast with each other?
92. According to Berkeley, what would happen in a room with no people if god did not exist?
93. According to Berkeley, can unperceived things exist?
93. Can god be perceived?

Thinky Questions. (These might just turn up as group discussion questions, if I'm feeling especially sadistic.)
Is there any meaningful difference between Berkely's doctrine and what Locke was saying?
Locke says that the existing objects of the world are real, solid, and made of matter.
Berkeley says these existing objects of the world are ideal, immaterial, and made of ideas.
I ask, what difference could it possibly make? Imagine that we create two universes, Idealia and Matteria. Idealia is composed entirely of ideas in our minds, and in the minds of it's inhabitants. Matteria is entirely made of matter. For Idealia, we take turns imposing consistency in reality, while in Matteria the phystical properties of matter take care of that. So Idealia is a Berkelian world of ideas and Matteria is a Lockian world of matter.
Now, how will the two worlds be different for the people living them? What will happen in Idealia that won't happen in Matteria, and vice versa? What would be dangerous in Idealia that would be safe in Matteria, and vice versa? Can you find any reason to say there's any difference between the theories beyond how we talk about things?

On page 89, Palmer says that differences in language explain differences in the ways people in different cultures think about things. I think he's got it ass-backwards. Consider the following two competing explanations.
1. People in different cultures cut the world up differently because their languages cut the world up differently. Versus:
2. Languages cut the world up differently because people in different cultures cut the world up differently
Consider the Inuits, and their profusion of words for what we call "snow."
Explanation 1, (Palmer) says that Inuits recognize differences in texture and consistency of frozen water as significant enough to mean that "tiqsiq" is a different kind of stuff than "pukajaq" (like the way we distinguish "ska" from "emo") merely because their language happened to have these two different words for snow.
Explanation 2. (Me) says that Inuits decided to use two different words for snow because their culture treats what they call "tiqsiq" differently from the way it treats what they call "pukajaq," and they decided to make up these words to reflect that difference. (The way skiers adapted the word "powder.")
If Palmer is right, how did those languages get those differences in the first place?
If I'm right, why do different cultures tend to cut the world up differently?

Potential questions for Quiz 1. According to Berkeley, is any "physical object" more than just the totality of its sense data? 2. What did Berkeley say about kicking rocks? 3. Are natural patterns the result of the way the world is, or of human decisions? 4. Are conventions the result of the way the world is, or of human decisions? 5. According to Berkeley, are sense data physical, or are they just mental? 6. Did Berkley say that kicking rocks would never hurt? 7. What is achieved by the bridge of intersubjectivity? 8. According to Berkeley, how do things continue to exist when no human is looking?

How To Make Up Quizzes
If for some reason, (illness, family emergency, conflicting academic obligation, sudden discovery that you have superpowers coupled with the need to save the Earth from a hurtling asteroid that only you can deflect), you miss one of my delightful quizzes, you can make up the lost points by writing up a clear, precise, and deeply insightful answer to one of the potential exam questions and turning the results in as "make-up quiz." Illustrations are not absolutely necessary, but would add a nice touch.

Potential Exam Questions

The following questions may appear on the next exam. Your answers should fully explain and properly organize all the information relevant to each question. This will include a variety of ideas developed in response to the above questions, in your personal reading and in class discussions.

25. Explain Berkeley's argument against Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities.
How did Locke think that primary and secondary qualities are different from each other? How did Berkeley think that we learned about an object's secondary qualities? How did Berkeley think we figured out an object's primary qualities? What did Berkeley think that this implied about Locke's distinction? What crucial fact did Berkeley rely on in his argument? Explain Berkeley's reasoning in your own words. (Yes, you get hints now, when things are easy. But do you get hints later when in matters?)

26. Explain Berkeley's doctrine of "esse is percipi".
According to Berkeley, what are the categories of the objects of human knowledge? What category is left out of this collection, and why is it left out? What is the ultimate foundation of all these categories? What is Berkeley's name for this foundation taken as a whole? What does Berkeley think is the meaning of the term "physical object"? According to Berkeley, what exists, and how does it exist? How did Dr. Johnson attempt to refute this doctrine? Did he succeed? Explain. (Hey, you're smart! You don't need hints to figure this stuff out!)

27. Explain the bridge of intersubjectivity.
What is the bridge supposed to accomplish, and how does it accomplish it? Do different people all see the world the same way? Do different cultures all use the same categories to describe the world? What kinds of things are the same for all people and cultures? Can we ever establish that two people can ever have exactly the same sensory experience? What is the foundation of language, and how is language used to establish a coherent picture of reality? If reality is established purely by the bridge of intersubjectivity, then what is reality exactly?


28. Your book says that different peoples divide the world up differently because they have differently structured languages. Your instructor says that different peoples have differently structured languages because they divide the world up differently, and they divide the world up differently because they live in different environments, and have to do different things to survive. Who is right, and why? Give the book's argument, give Young's argument, say which is weaker, and explain why.

29. Explain and criticize Berkeley's argument for the existence of god.
What is Locke's version of causality? What is Berkeley's version of causality? How are they different? How are they the same? What two explanations for the existence of our ideas are available to Berkeley? Which explanation does he prefer? On the basis of what principle does Berkeley reject the other explanation? How is this principle also violated by his preferred explanation? Explain your answers.

Any exam answer can be enhanced by addition of any comments that occur to you. The more you think about a topic, the more likely you are to come up with something that can earn you a little more credit for your answer. I never deduct points, so it can't hurt to add your own thoughts.

Copyright © 2006 by Martin C. Young

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