The nature of the sensible I

This chapter will consider Berkeley’s main claim in the first dialogue, that immediate objects of perceptual experience are mind-dependent and therefore ‘ideas’. First, it will be explained how Berkeley understands the distinction between direct and indirect perception and how the conception of a sensible thing that stems from this discussion sets the parameters for the subsequent arguments in the first dialogue. Then the many arguments that Philonous puts forward for the view that sensible qualities of heat and cold, taste, smell and colour, are mind-dependent, will be considered.