In a message dated 9/6/00 8:54:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I guess if you follow Berkeley chairs
and tables are ideas so they are certainly like them if they are like ideas!
Are you talking about the question whether some "entities" in theoretical
physics actually exist(like tables and chairs) or exist only as constructs
(ideas) helpful in formulating theories. >>
Berkeley does not think that chairs and tables are "only" constructs useful
for forming ideas, but that there are chairs and tables (really!), which, if
properly analysed, are understood to be essentially perceptions, constructed
from ideas. The "construct" view is closer to certain ancient and little held
views of the early logical positivists about theoretical entities. They
rejected the idea that there was any sense to talking about what there
"really" was. --jks
