>> So, strictly speaking, our belief
>> in the existence of
>> an external world is false yet a necessary belief for us to
>> get on in the
>> world.
>
>As Dr. Johnson memorably demonstrated when Boswell commented that,
>though Berkeley's theory of the non-existence of matter was clearly not
>true, it could not be refuted. "I refute it *thus,*" said Dr. J.,
>kicking "a large stone, till he rebounded from it."
The first person I heard that story from was the chairman (no gender-neutral titles, please!) of the Party of the Right back during my reactionary freshman days. Not that that means anything, of course.
Doug