Philosophical Works Including the Works on Vision (Everyman's Library (Paper)) by Berkeley, George(August 1, 1993) Paperback

by George Berkeley

This selection of George Berkeley's most important philosophical works contains--Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision; Principles of Human Knowledge; Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous; Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained; De Motu (in translation); Philosophical Correspondence between Berkeley and Samuel Johnson, 1729-30; and Philosophical Commentaries.

Genres: Philosophy

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

George Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrklɪ/;[1][2] 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753) — known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne) — was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are only ideas in the minds of perceivers, and as a result cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

George^Berkeley

Reviews

[Nigel Hems · Rating 5 out of 5]

Berkeley's 'Principles of Philosophy' is a book that stands alone in the history of philosophy. It marks the beginning of a kind of ‘subjective idealism’ that changed the face of early modern philosophy and helped shape every form of ‘idealism’ that was to follow in its wake. Starting from a fundamentally Lockean position re empiricism (seemingly paradoxical in light of the empirical idealism he was to develop), Berkeley goes on to launch a number of devastating attacks against Locke’s representational realism. Central to the ‘Principles’ is the Introduction section, which includes the famous attack on abstract general ideas. Briefly, Berkeley claims that Locke has no grounds for mentally separating those qualities, properties, predicates, etc., which cannot exist separately, in the mind or in reality. This is the basis of a nominalistic argument against abstract universals. Berkeley's positive view is close to what has become known as a 'a phenomenalist' epistemology, which claims that physical objects are constructions out of sense materials, or what is now known as 'sense data'. Crucial to understanding Berkeley’s philosophical development is first hand acquaintance with his ‘Commonplace Book’, which was written a few years before the publication of the ‘Principles’. In this work, Berkeley experiments with his brand of idealism, which would be used against what he called the sceptics: namely those who believed in the existence of material substance existing outside of minds and without being perceived. Simply put, there are only three kinds of things for Berkeley: God (as infinite mind, and not a kind as such, but one of a kind 'sui generis'), finite minds, and the ideas which are perceived by such minds. It follows that unthinking, inert matter, which we can have no idea of, must be a contradiction in terms.