Summarize Berkeley’s explanation of distance perception.
George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher who established fame with three major works. His primary achievement was the advancement of theory on “immaterialism”. He has tackled the several major issues in philosophy, such as problems of perception, importance of language and the difference between primary and secondary qualities.
According to Berkeley, all things come into existence not only by the presence of physical world but only when they are perceived. His conclusions were bold, telling that reality consists of our perceptions and nothing more. He also proposed a theory on distance perception. He explained that to judge the distance of an object properly, many sensations must be associated. He identified the distances of the object with the help of the object’s size being perceived.
Berkeley rejected the theory of Descartes and others, who demonstrated that distance perception is based on the natural geometry, which is based on angles present between eyes and perceived object, or on angles of light rays falling upon the eyes. In his demonstration, Berkeley proved that smaller the object, greater is the distance and larger the object, closer is the distance. He also argued that the visual distance perception involves both senses of vision and touch.
He also demonstrated that apart from sensations of the eyes and touch, other sensations are also associated in distance perception. He agrees with some writers, who held that humans correlate the current perception with the previous perception and judge the distance of the objects. He concluded the distance perception as follows:
i. There are sensations associated with eyes, while perceiving an object.
ii. When the object is moved closer, its appearance becomes confusing.
iii. When object approaches eyes, confusion gets reduced by straining eyes.