To Be Is To Be Perceived

Today, I BARTed over to to Berkeley from my work in Oakland to go to the comic bookstore. I’ve done this a few times and every single time, the same thing happens on my return journey back to work- I get this feeling, wondering if my building is still there. I get off my BART stop, take the stairs out of the station and make my walk back to work. Of course, as I round the corner my building is there. It didn’t go anywhere. Just because I wasn’t there didn’t mean it ceased to exist.

During my two years in the Humanities program back in college, my classmates and I went through more a lot of philosophers and I always remember one in particular - George Berkeley. His theory was that if something is not perceived, who is to say it exists. Meaning, if you are not at your house, and no else is watching it, there is no guarantee that it actually exists.

I know that there are people there while I am not there so of course it still exists. And y’know what? It’ll be there even after everyone’s gone home.

Well, probably.

/random