How did George Berkeley explain the existence of a table when no person is looking at it?

For the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, the existence of physical objects like a table is rooted in his doctrine of subjective idealism, summarized by the phrase esse est percipi ("to be is to be perceived").

Berkeley argued that physical objects are collections of sensible ideas that cannot exist outside of a mind. Because he rejected the existence of material substance, he addressed the concern of how objects persist when no human is observing them. His primary explanation was that even when a table is not being perceived by any human, it continues to exist because it is being perceived by God. In this view, God’s constant perception and thinking sustain the existence of all things in the universe.

Berkeley maintained that this perspective aligns with common sense, asserting that objects do not simply pop in and out of existence based on human attention. Instead, they remain in a state of being perceivable, with their continued reality guaranteed by the divine mind.12