Sunday, February 6, 2022

A refutation

Patrick Kurp quotes Boswell's account of Samuel Johnson's response to Bishop Berkeley:
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall 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."
Anecdotal Evidence, February 6, 2022.

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