Berkeley\'s First Dialogue

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Berkeley’s First Dialogue is one of the three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in opposition to skeptics and atheists. The dialogue commences with an unexpected meeting between Philonous and Hylas. Philonous comments that he is surprised to see Hylas in the garden, so Hylas replies that he is there because he could not sleep. The reason for this being that he had a problem which could only be cured with nature’s sensational beauty. His problem was of “considering the odd fate of those men who have in all ages, through an affectation of being distinguished from the vulgar, or some unaccountable turn of thought, pretended either to believe nothing at all, or to believe the most extravagant things in the world” (Philosophic Classics, 653).
In addressing Hylas’s burden, Philonous sought to prove his own “absurdity,” maintaining that “no such thing as material substance [exists] in the world” as a rational deduction. After a series of rational conundrums leading to the glorification of his philosophic theory, Philonous continues his discourse:
But, for your farther satisfaction, take this along with you: that which at other times seems sweet, shall, to a distempered palate, appear bitter. And, nothing can be plainer than that divers persons perceive different tastes in the same food; since that which one man delights in, another abhors. And how could this be, if the taste was something really inherent in the food?” (659)
The above quotation basically means that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Philonous’ (Berkeley’s) view (of pleasure and pain) is especially reasonable, for it is a universal cliché that is still be applied to modern man. Pleasure and pain are two different emotions or sensations, yet they are one and the same. One man might derive pleasure through seeking bloody revenge, while another man may mourn the death of his beloved comrade. “Warmth is as great a pleasure as h...