George Berkeley (1685-1753), Irish philosopher: Esse Est Percipi: To Be Is To Be Seen (more exactly: the ability to be seen). In German: Sein heisst wahrgenommen werden (genauer: wahrgenommen werden koennen)

Berkeley was close to British Empirism: God stands high above us, and his ways are not intuitive to man. We therefore cannot know his laws (laws of nature) to begin with, and cannot find them through logical deduction. We have to learn them through observation and experience.

Berkeley also was a consequent Idealist (as opposed to a Materialist): The only objects of human knowledge are ideas and the minds that have the ideas. How can that be? If all exists only in our minds, what difference does exist between the sun in the sky, a sun that we dream about, and a sun that we can imagine at any given point in time. Berkeley says that the vision of the 'real' sun occurs in all minds to the same extend, whereas the 'dreamed' sun is only happening in one (my own) mind, and the 'imagined' sun only in my mind if I want to imagine it.

Modern theory of Ideas: ideas are formed in three ways :
1.) directly imprinted on the senses
2.) introspected in the mind (passions, emotions)
3.) formed by memory and imagination

Other Links:
George Berkeley's Philosophy
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: George Berkeley

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