Page 149 - The Truth of the Life of This World

In the same manner, when we see colours, dif-
ferent wavelengths of light are all that reaches
our eyes, and our brain transforms these wave-
lengths into colours. There are no colours in
the "external world." Neither is the apple red,
nor is the sky blue, nor the trees green. They
are as they are only because we perceive them
to be so.
Even the slightest defect in the eye's retina
can cause colour blindness. Some people per-
ceive blue as green, others red as blue, and still The findings of modern
physics show that the uni-
others see all colours as different tones of grey. verse is a collection of
At this point, it no longer matters whether the perceptions. The following
question appears on the
outside object is coloured or not.
cover of the well-known
The prominent Irish thinker George American science maga-
zine New Scientist, which
Berkeley also addressed this point:
dealt with this matter in
First,... it was thought that colour, figure, its 30 January 1999 issue:
"Beyond Reality: Is the
motion, and the rest of the sensible qualities or
Universe Really a Frolic of
accidents, did really exist without the mind;...
Primal Information and
But, it having been shewn that none even of Matter Just a Mirage?"
these can possibly exist otherwise than in a
Spirit or Mind which perceives them it follows that we have no longer any
reason to suppose the being of Matter... 18
In conclusion, we see colours not because objects are coloured or
because they have a material existence outside ourselves, but because all
the qualities we ascribe to objects are inside us, not in the "external world."
In that case, how can we claim to have complete knowledge of "the
external world?”

Mankind’s Limited Knowledge

One implication of the facts described so far is that actually, man's
knowledge of the external world is exceedingly limited.
That knowledge is limited to our five senses, and there is no proof
that the world we perceive by means of those senses is identical to the

The Truth of the Life of This World 147