ABSTRACT
In his Life of Johnson James Boswell records how he and Johnson came out of church and stood talking for some time about ‘Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal’. Johnson was clearly appalled at this threat to empirical reality. Boswell continues:
I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I shall never forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus’.
