Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 52

REALITY
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world depends on them. They somehow determine the empirical existence of the world. Hence, Plato's conception of reality is nothing but a system of eternal, immutable and immaterial ideas.. Idealism of Berkeley :
Berkeley may be said to be the founder of Idealism in the modern period, although his arrow could not touch the point of destination. According to Locke (the predecessor of Berkeley), substance was regarded as a seat of qualities some of which are primary in the sense that they are objective and others are secondary in the sense that they are not in objects but in our minds, i.e., subjective. Berkeley rejected this twofold division on the basis that if secondary qualities are what they are by means of perception or idea, the primary qualities are no less dependent on the same perception. A quality whether primary or secondary must be cognized by our perception. All the things which are composed of qualities both primary and secondary must be regarded as such only when they are perceived as such. In other words, the existence of things must be determined by perception or idea : Esse est percipi. This type of Idealism may be regarded as Subjective Idealism. According to Berkeley, it is the individual mind that determines the existence of external objects. In his later writings he faced a horrible difficulty of dualism regarding his doctrine of lesse est percipi.' For the emergence of perception the existence of external objects independent of mind is necessary. Without an external and independent object no perception is possible. To overcome this difficulty Berkeley established a new doctrine in his later works which is known as 'esse est concipi.' In this new doctrine he placed the word 'conception' in place of 'perception' meaning thereby 'to exist is to be conceived.' Idealism of Kant :
Kant's Idealism is a direct result of his epistemological position adopted in his Critique of Pure Reason. He points out