Berkeley, George
"Three Dialogues Between Hylas And Philonous"
They are.
. Can you then conceive it possible that they should
exist in an unperceiving thing?
. I cannot.
. Or, can you imagine that filth and ordure affect
those brute animals that feed on them out of choice, with the
same smells which we perceive in them?
. By no means.
. May we not therefore conclude of smells, as of the
other forementioned qualities, that they cannot exist in any but
a perceiving substance or mind?
. I think so.
. Then as to , what must we think of them: are
they accidents really inherent in external bodies, or not?
. That they inhere not in the sonorous bodies is plain
from hence: because a bell struck in the exhausted receiver of an
air-pump sends forth no sound. The air, therefore, must be
thought the subject of sound.
. What reason is there for that, Hylas?
. Because, when any motion is raised in the air, we
perceive a sound greater or lesser, according to the air's
motion; but without some motion in the air, we never hear any
sound at all.
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