Due, as an attachment, via the “Assignments” tool on ecommons, by midnight Thurs., May 15.
Carefully state some apparently undeniable truth
from common sense, physical science, or mathematics (e.g., I have two
hands; one body can cause another body to move by pushing it; a line
contains infinitely many points). Explain briefly why Berkeley
nevertheless appears to deny it. Finally, respond on Berkeley’s behalf
in the following two parts: (a) I don’t deny the statement, if it is
understood correctly; (b) if the statement is understood such that I
deny it, then it is neither good common sense nor good mathematics nor
good physics, and in fact it is absurd. All parts together
should be 2–3 pages, double spaced. (Needless to say this should be
your own original work.1)
Note that this is not a full scale paper — please do not write an introduction and conclusion, summarize other, irrelevant parts of the text, etc. Just focus on doing the above.
You can find answers to some commonly asked questions about my assignments and grading at http://people.ucsc.edu/~abestone/courses/faq.html.