Against the Unintelligible Existence of Matter: A reinterpretation of the Master Argument in The Principles of Human Knowledge.

Abstract

The Master Argument can be a confusing argument for readers of The Principles of Human Understanding. My aim is to reconstruct the introductions use of abstract ideas to reinterpret a more generous account of the master argument in which Berkeley is attempting to show the impossibility of matter insofar as it is an abstract concept which requires us to divorce experience and perception.