For this assignment respond to the following with 250 words:

The famous disagreement between Dr. Johnson and George Berkeley came to be known as the “Appeal to the Stone” incident. The famous writer attempted to disprove Berkeley’s idealistic claim that reality only consists of ideas and mental perceptions by kicking a stone and thus bruising his toe. Johnson claimed that the stone before him was very much real. If the stone were not real he would not feel pain from the blow. He fails to fully understand Berkeley’s claim and hastily denounces his claim by stating, “I refute it thus”. Johnson dismisses Berkeley’s claim but does not give examples or proof as to why he disagrees with his claim.

I believe Dr, Johnson’s “refutation” was not as effective as he had hoped. I was inclined to investigate further into Dr. Johnson’s life and career before making any assumptions about him. Whether he made the mistake of making a logical fallacy or not, I felt it imperative to look into his views on philosophy and influential philosophers of his time. Perhaps there was an underlying cause documented somewhere. Were there reasons to believe that Johnson was a materialist? It was not out of the ordinary for a devout Christian to believe in such notions. I came to the conclusion that his Christian theology had little to do with his assumption to Berkeley’s idealistic views. Berkeley himself was a devout Christian and used this in his argument for his objective idealism. As Berkeley claimed, ‘when we aren’t observing or perceiving with our senses, God is the ultimate observer or perceiver of all things human and inhuman. Therefore, the object will still be there when we are not perceiving it.’ (pg. 157). To someone that did not believe in God a valid argument would be thatthere is no ultimate or divine perceiver. This claim would make this idealistic view fall apart.

It’s possible Johnson did not read or even comprehend Berkeley’s work on the new theory vision published in 1709. Perhaps he could have argued or made valid points to refute Berkeley’s claim. Instead, Johnson not only bruised his toe but also his own ego.

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