Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent edition
The main text of any edition of Principles/Three Dialogues will be virtually the same, but this one is especially good for its superb introduction, by Roger Woolhouse. I can't imagine that there is anywhere a better short introduction to Berkeley's thought, the issues that motivated his work, and where he fits into the history of philosophy both before and after his time.

Berkeley really was a radical thinker, following the premises of others, like Descartes and Locke, to their logical, and deeply troubling, implications. He was out to defeat skepticism, which he saw as corrosive of religion, yet ended up a primary representative of the skeptical view. As Woolhouse points out, modern phenomenalism can find roots in Berkeley, and perhaps even the logical empiricism of the Vienna Circle.If someone were just starting out reading Western philosophy and wondered where to begin, I would recommendBerkeley as the best place to start.

Immaterialism and Common Sense
George Berkeley's early 18th century treatise "Of the Principles of Human Knowledge" was written in response to the current popular philosophical leanings of Locke, Descartes, Hobbes, Malebranche, and others. Berkeley's major problem with the philosophy of his age was in its materialist leanings. Berkeley at base had issues with the indefinite nature of philosophical terminology, and the ways in which the foundations of knowledge seemed to be centered on unknowable concepts like 'abstract truths,' 'matter,' and 'absolute' entities. The solution?

Berkeley reasons that philosophy has gotten away from common sense, and that the way to make philosophy and natural science more accessible is to use the vocabulary and understanding of the 'vulgar' masses. Berkeley's philosophy is called Immaterialism. He holds that the only things that can properly be said to exist are 'ideas' and 'spirits.' Ideas are all objects perceived by our five senses or by logic and inference from those objects. Spirits are our minds or souls, those things that perceive, think, and exercise will. He says that all other philosophical terminology only tends to confuse us. We cannot doubt the real existence of anything in the world, because we see, feel, hear, touch, and taste these things every day. What we can doubt are philosophical quandaries like abstract ideas - for existence, while we can think of a particular person in motion, we can neither conceive of a person in abstract nor of motion in general. This, Berkeley contends, is all that common sense gives to the plainest of people. Ordinary people do not doubt the existence of trees or gloves, nor do they conjecture about matter or substrata underlying the things they interact with everyday.

The 'Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous' serve to support the philosophical arguments that Berkeley made in the 'Principles.' Hylas is a materialist, while Philonous represents Berkeley's immaterialist argument. Their three dialogues are extremely entertaining and informative. They compliment the technical philosophy by providing concrete examples, which are many times missing from Berkeley's treatise. While the treatise and the dialogues can be read and understood on their own, the fullest appreciation of Berkelely comes from reading both. One limitation of Berkeley is that his 'vulgar' notions are almost too simplistic. He takes Occom's razor almost to the point of absurdity, which causes him to dispute notions like gravity, which these days one may well frown upon. Other than matters of advanced mathematical or scientific complexity, however, Berkeley's immaterialism seems, on the surface, to make great sense.

Another interesting facet of these two works is their religious component. An Anglican bishop, Berkeley makes use of his belief in God both to support his arguments, and uses immaterialist arguments to simply (far more simply than Descartes) prove the existence of God. Not quite an enthralling read, but, who reads philosophy to be enthralled? The arguments are interesting, the arguments well-supported, and possible objections deftly handled. ... Read more

Book Description
Berkeley's idealism started a revolution in philosophy. As one of the great empiricist thinkers he not only influenced British philosophers from Hume to Russell and the logical positivists in the twentieth century, he also set the scene for the continental idealism of Hegel and even the philosophy of Marx.There has never been such a radical critique of common sense and perception as that given in Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge (1710).His views were met with disfavour, and his response to his critics was the Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.This edition of Berkeley's two key works has an introduction which examines and in part defends his arguments for idealism, as well as offering a detailed analytical contents list, extensive philosophical notes and an index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Esse est percipi aut percipere
Berkeley's principle, esse est percipi aut percipere, denies the bustance's existence and assents that all things are only minds or ideas perceived by minds. This is the starting point for the idealism and allthis is exposed in his first work, the "Principles of humanknowledge" (1710). Since his first work was met with disfavour, heresposed to his critics with his second work, the "Threedialogues" between Hylas and Philonous (1713). This edition containsthe two keys works and also has an introduction wich examines Berkeley'sarguments. ... Read more

Book Description

This philosophical work records an imaginary dialogue by British thinker George Berkeley on the subject of materialism. It is one of the most important philosophical discussions of the eighteenth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A classic of Western Philosophy
Along with Kant, the only Western Philosopher after Plato, worth reading. Bend your mind, and free your soul.

Superb edition, flawed work.
A fantasic edition like all these Oxfords.It has a long introduction detailing Berkeley's life and works, and numerous notes throughout the work itself.

As for the work itself it's a recasting of Berkeley's earlier work the Principles into dialogue form.Quite what the point of this was since the Principles were already easy to read is unclear, (although a case could be made that the Dialogues require less prior knowledge of Locke than the Principles did and are therefore a better introductory work) but it's difficult to be sorry that he did as he writes the dialogue form so well, easily the best since Plato, and in my opinion probably marginally better than Plato.He handles the character who he's trying to refute much better than Plato ever did.Unfortunately his ideas aren't on a level with Plato's.As with the Principles his writing sweeps you up and it almost convinces you that perhaps matter doesn't exist and the mind is all there is, but once again take a step back and the flaws become all too apparent.

Berkeley's too important to ignore though, and besides his books are a pleasure to read.You can't do better than this edition.

A reader-friendly introduction to Berkeley.
This Oxford Philosophical Texts student edition of George Berkeley's best known work features a helpful introduction, glossary, and notes by philosopher Jonathan Dancy (author of _Berkeley: An Introduction_ andeditor of the Oxford Philosophical Texts edition of Berkeley's _Treatiseconcerning the Principles of Human Knowledge_). The forty-page introductionincludes a short biography of Berkeley, a synopsis of the _Dialogues_, asummary and analysis of Berkeley's philosophy including critical discussionof his main arguments, and an exposition of the relation between the_Dialogues_ and the _Principles_. Also featured: a bibliography and ananalytical table of contents for the dialogues.

As for Berkeley himself,he probably needs no introduction from me. Arguably the most judiciouscommentary on his thought is that of T.H. Green, who in his great_Introduction_ to Locke and Hume remarked as follows:

"His[Berkeley's] purpose was the maintenance of Theism, and a true instincttold him that pure Theism, as distinct from nature-worship and daemonism,has no philosophical foundation, unless it can be shown that there isnothing real apart from thought. But in the hurry of theological advocacy,and under the influence of a misleading terminology, he failed todistinguish this true proposition -- there is nothing real apart fromthought -- from this false one, its virtual contradictory -- that there isnothing other than feeling. The confusion was covered, if not caused, bythe ambiguity, often noticed, in the use of the term 'idea.' This toBerkeley's generation stood alike for feeling proper . . . and forconception, or an object thought of under relations. . . . Misled by thephrase 'idea of a thing,' we fancy that idea and thing have each a separatereality of their own, and then puzzle ourselves with questions as to howthe idea can represent the thing . . . . These questions Berkeley asked andfound unanswerable. There were two ways of dealing with them before him.One was to supersede them by a truer view of thought and its object, astogether in essential correlation constituting the real; but this way hedid not take. The other was to avoid them by merging both thing and idea inthe indifference of simple feeling . . . -- an attempt which contradictsitself, since it virtually admits [the] existence [of such oppositions asinner and outer, subjective and objective] while it renders themunaccountable." [_Hume and Locke_, 1968 Apollo edition, pp.140-142.]

This summary may not be quite adequate to Berkeley's thoughtoverall, as later in life he does appear to have come round to a view notaltogether unlike Green's. However, it seems to me to be an eminently fairassessment of the Berkeley represented in the present volume.

At any rateBerkeley was a fascinating thinker and this volume is as good anintroduction to him as is available. The _Dialogues_ should eventually beread in conjunction with the _Principles_ (which they were intended tosupport), but anyone looking for a single volume in which to meet thisgreat and seminal philosopher will be safe in beginning with this one. ... Read more

Book Description
Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men.Download Description
Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A must read for Philosophy Scholars
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Commonly called "Treatise" when referring to Berkeley's works) is a 1710 work by the Irish Empiricist philosopher George Berkeley. This book largely seeks to refute the claims made by his contemporary John Locke about the nature of human perception. Whilst, like all the Empiricist philosophers, both Locke and Berkeley agreed that there was an outside world, and it was this world which caused the ideas one has within one's mind; Berkeley sought to prove that outside world was also composed solely of ideas. Berkeley did this by suggesting that "Ideas can only resemble Ideas" - the mental ideas that we possessed could only resemble other ideas (not physical objects) and thus the external world consisted not of physical form, but rather ideas. This world was given logic and regularity by some other force, which Berkeley did his best to conclude was a God.

Long refuted by most philosophers, Berkeley's claims are often felt to have been a form of rationalisation - Berkeley later became Bishop of Cloyne, and was a highly religious man. Treastise's suggestion that the world was made of ideas with an omnipitent force guiding was his alternative to the Lockean Empiricism popular at the time, which Berkeley felt led to skepticism. In spite of this Berkeley was a capable, respected and entertaining thinker. Some doubt exists as to whether he truly believed his conclusion that the world at large was composed of ideas; with modern thinking tending towards him indeed having thought this to be the case.

Ideal Idealism
This is not the place for a philosophical analysis of Berkeley's original text, and its content of argument. The review concerns the specific book edited by Dancy, and its worth in respect of its further contribution to understanding the Treatise.
This book is to be strongly recommended as it provides a multitude of resources that contextualise, criticise, and clarify, the positions put forward by Berkeley in this work.

The most substantial contribution is the extensive introduction comprised of 15 punchy sections, covering Berkeley's life, his academic heritage, and analysis of his thought (both internal and external to that given in the Treatise). Dancy is fair to Berkeley in setting forth the most robust defences of his position, and marshalling critical arguments against the Berkelian stance. This is supplemented by an extremely thorough set of endnotes that are continually present in the background of the text, offering detailed guidance whenever necessary, or desired.

Additionally, the book offers a summarised concise overview of the arguments provided in the Treatise, a glossary of archaic terms(!), and a very helpful short section entitled "How to use this book" (why don't more books include this sort of thing?). There is also a manageable annotated bibliography of further reading to trail a path for academic expansion.

Overall, I found that this book provided a systematic treatment of the text and provided a solid structure of support surrounding the subject. Also included, the letters between Berkeley and Johnson, provide an unexpected bonus. This book is relatively cheap, considering its breadth and depth. In my opinion, it is an ideal text through which to study (and enjoy) Berkeley's Treatise.

Great edition for a great but flawed work.
An extremely important work in the history of philosophy that everyone reads and then dismisses.You should too!

First, this edition is, like the others in this Oxford range, superb, with an excellent long introduction and numerous helpful notes.You can't do better than this unless you're looking for all of his works shoved into one volume, like the Everyman.So basically, if you're looking to study Berkeley seriously, get this edition (and pick up the Dialogues too).

On to the work itself.Berkeley's starting point is Locke's theory of substance, so it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with that first.His basic proposition is Locke's theory of ideas, without the substratum supporting them - there is, therefore, nothing material in the world other than our minds.Berkeley is a brilliant writer and he sweeps you up so thoroughly in his arguments that you can't help but be convinced.But once you've stop reading and take a step back the gaping holes in his arguments become quickly and painfully apparent.

Regardless of the validity of his argument, it's worth buying the work for two reason; his historical importance, and the sheer quality of writing - it's a highly enjoyable work to read; only Plato equals Berkeley for easy and enjoyable to read works of philosophy.

an interesting reading
This is a very important work of George Berkeley. On of its most interesting topics is that about the existence of matter. As, for human beings,the "existence" of something is related to its perception, there is a very close link between "things" andideas. Both cannot have their existence completely proved. The argumentsplace the book among the most interesting on the top issues discussed inits time (empiricism, materialism, etc.)

an interesting reading
This is a very important work of George Berkeley. On of its most interesting topics is that about the existence of matter. As, for human beings,the "existence" of something is related to its perception, there is a very close link between "things" andideas. Both cannot have their existence completely proved. The argumentsplace the book among the most interesting on the top issues discussed inits time (empiricism, materialism, etc.) ... Read more

Book Description
George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense but that it was also integral to its defense. Roberts argues that understanding the basic connection between Berkeley's philosophy and common sense requires that we develop a better understanding of the four principle components of Berkeley's positive metaphysics: The nature of being, the divine language thesis, the active/passive distinction, and the nature of spirits.Roberts begins by focusing on Berkeley's view of the nature of being. He elucidates Berkeley's view on Locke and the Cartesians and by examining Berkeley's views about related concepts such as unity and simplicity. From there he moves on to Berkeley's philosophy of language arguing that scrutiny of the famous "Introduction" to the Principles of Human Knowledge reveals that Berkeley identified the ideational theory of meaning and understanding as the root cause of some of the worst of man's intellectual errors, not "abstract ideas." Abstract ideas are, rather, the most debilitating symptom of this underlying ailment. In place of the ideational theory, Berkeley defends a rudimentary "use theory" of meaning. This understanding of Berkeley's approach to semantics is then applied to the divine language thesis and is shown to have important consequences for Berkeley's pragmatic approach to the ontology of natural objects and for his approach to our knowledge of, and relation to other minds, including God's. Turning next to Berkeley's much aligned account of spirits, the author defends the coherence of Berkeley's view of spirits by way of providing an interpretation of the active/passive distinction as marking a normative distinction and by focusing on the role that divine language plays in letting Berkeley identify the soul with the will. With these four principles of Berkeley's philosophy in hand, he then returns to the topic of common sense and offers a defense of Berkeley's philosophy as built upon and expressive of the deepest metaphysical commitments of mainstream Christianity.Roberts' reappraisal of this important figure should appeal to all historians of philosophy as well as scholars in metaphysics and philosophy of language. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1843 edition by Thomas Tegg, London. ... Read more

Book Description
1843. Part One of Two. Including his letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, etc., etc. to which is prefixed an account of his life. George Berkeley was one of the three most famous eighteenth century British Empiricists along with John Locke and David Hume. He is best known for his motto, esse is percipi, to be is to be perceived. He was an idealist: everything that exists is either a mind or depends for its existence upon a mind. He was an immaterialist: matter does not exist. He accepted the seemingly outrageous position that ordinary physical objects are composed solely of ideas, which are inherently mental. He wrote on vision, mathematics, Newtonian mechanics, economics, and medicine as well as philosophy. In his own time, his most often-read works concerned the medicinal value of tar-water. And in a curious sense, he was the first great American philosopher. Contents Volume One: Life of Bishop Berkeley; Letters, etc.; Of the Principles of Human Knowledge; Synoptical Table of Contents; Introduction; Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous; An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision; and Alciphron:or the Minute Philosopher, in Seven Dialogues. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1417922281. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Highly Intelligent
An influential writer of philosophy and just about everything else.These complete works are an essential component to any thinking person's library.I highly recommend this collection.

It's all of Berkeley - what more can you ask?
Since Berkeley is best remembered as a philosopher and it is therefore highly likely that anyone interested in this is interested in that part of Berkeley's collected works, that is where I will focus this review.

The most important work of Berkeley is "A Treatise Concerning the Principals of Human Knowledge [Part I]" (there is no part II - the partial manuscript for it was lost while Berkeley was travelling). "Principals" has two principal sections: one epistemological and the other metaphysical.

In the epistemological section of "Principals", Berkeley argued that when we use words to describe entities which we literally cannot imagine, we block our own understanding - "that we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see." We can use words to stand for a multiplicity of different entities (such as "triangle" to stand for all possible triangles), but that an abstract triangle, one that is "neither oblique nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, nor scalenon, but all and none of these at once", (here he was quoting Locke) is an impossibility. The significance of this is subtle, but critical to his argument since he came back to it again and again throughout his works to differentiate between meaningful and meaningless words.

Having laid out a differentiation between meaningful and meaningless words in his epistemological section, Berkeley then proceeded to the metaphysical section, in which he attacked the idea of matter, principally as expounded by Locke. Berkeley argued that matter is a meaningless word, signifying nothing that we can imagine. He argued that all of the properties that materialists ascribe to matter are either perceptions (non-existent in the absence of a perceiver) or utterly meaningless. Thus, Berkeley argued that a theory of matter to account for our perceptions was a meaningless proposition. Our perceptions of the world (our ideas of it), however, still required an explanation. To this end, Berkeley argued the things we perceive are ideas that are put into our minds by God. They differ from things that we imagine by our lack of control over them, and in their consistency and vividness - properties that are the result of their being the product of a mind other than and vastly more powerful than our own. In this argument, Berkeley felt that he had discovered a powerful counter to atheism, that his theistic idealism could account for the world whereas atheism, with its dependency on matter, could not.

"Principals" did not meet with the acceptance that Berkeley had hoped for it (to say the least), so he presented his metaphysics again in a more accessible form in "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous." "Dialogs" is easier to read, but not as good a source as "Principals" for really understanding Berkeley. In either form, the critical side of his argument against matter had and has great force, even if his proposed alternative has never attracted many adherents.

Berkeley also presented his metaphysics again in less detail in two other works: the fourth dialogue in "Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher" and in "The Theory of Vision, or Visual Language, Shewing the Immediate Presence and Providence of a Deity."

"Commonplace Book - Berkeley's notes from 1705-08." is a collection of short notes that Berkeley jotted down while he was working through his philosophical ideas and preparing to publish them. "Commonplace Book" itself was never intended for publication but is of interest in understanding how Berkeley's thought developed.

Berkeley also wrote on scientific matters, consistent with his views as laid out in "Principals", on vision in "An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision", (which he actually wrote before "Principals" which he hoped would soften the audience for the presentation of the full theory in "Principals" and also in "De Motu" (On Motion).

Berkeley also wrote on mathematics, again consistently with his philosophical writings in "The Analyst; or a Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician" and the follow-on works "A Defense of Free-Thinking in Mathematics" and "Reasons for not Replying to Mr. Walton's Full Answer". "The Analyst" - an attack on the foundations of Newton's calculus, set off a furor in British mathematics that lasted a century.

"Alciphron" alluded to earlier, was a work of Christian apologetics, and was Berkeley's longest work. It is not without interest today, but it has not aged as well as his other works mentioned above.

"Passive Obedience: or The Christian Doctrine of not resisting the Supreme Power", was a work of political philosophy. It is not at all connected with his other philosophical works and was regarded as dangerous and somewhat subversive.

The last work of Berkeley that deserves individual mention is "Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water and Divers Other Subjects Connected Together and Rising From One Another", a curious (to put it mildly) work on both "tar-water", which Berkeley held to be a panacea, and metaphysical speculation inspired by reading classical sources (if you don't know what tar-water is, don't worry - you can get the recipe in "Siris"). "Siris" was written near the end of Berkeley's life. The metaphysical speculation in it did not constitute an abandonment of his earlier ideas, but it did not strike me as at all developed - he was going somewhere new but had not yet arrived when he wrote it.

Apart from his intellectual endeavors above, Berkeley also led a full life and was an active Anglican clergyman. He travelled, wrote on purely religious matters, and also wrote in support of social justice and tolerance. These works round out the man, as does "Life of Berkeley", Fraser's biographical essay at the start of the collection.

The collection is not without its flaws. Chief among these is that "De Motu" is left in Latin and untranslated both it and "The Analyst" really require more extensive introductions to be easily understood by a contemporary reader. Douglas Jesseph's "De Motu and The Analyst", Volume 41 of "The New Syntheses Historical Library" is a highly recommended supplement to the "Works".

A Great Collection
So what do you get for your money?

Volume I:

Life of Berkeley - by Fraser.

Commonplace Book - Berkeley's notes from 1705-08.

An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision.

A Treatise Concerning the Principals ofHuman Knowledge [Part I].

Three Dialogs Between Hylas and Philonous.

DeMotu - this is in Latin and is NOT translated.

Volume II:

Alciphron;or, the Minute Philosopher.

The Theory of Vsion, or Visual Language,Shewing the Immediate Presence and Providence of a Deity.

VolumeIII:

The Analyst; or a Discourse Addressed to an InfidelMathemetician.

A Defense of Free-Thinking in Mathematics.

Reasons fornot Replying to Mr. Walton's Full Answer.

Siris: A Chain of PhilosophicalReflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water and DiversOther Subjects Connected Together and Rising From One Another.

ThreeLetters to Thomas Prior, Esq., and a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hales, on theVirtues of Tar-Water.

Farther Thoughts on Tar-Water.

VolumeIV:

Arithmetica Absque Algebra Aut Euclide Demonstrata -this is inLatin and is NOT translated.

Miscella Mathematica... - this is in Latinand is NOT translated.

Description of the Cave of Dunmore.

TheRevelation of Life and Immortality.

Passive Obedience: or The ChristianDoctrine of not resisting the Supreme Power...

Essays in theGuardian.

Two Sermons Preached at Leghorn in 1714.

Journal in Italy in1717, 1718.

An Essay Toward Preventing the Ruin of GreatBritain.

Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning inAmerica.

Notes of Sermons Preached at Newport in Rhode Island and in theNarragansett country in 1729-31.

A Sermon Preached before theIncorporating Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in ForeignParts...1732.

The Querist, containing several queries, proposed to theconsideration of the public.

A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Menin Authority.

Primary Visitation Charge Delivered to the Clergy of theDiocese of Cloyne.

Address on Confirmation.

A Letter to Sir John James,Bart., on the Differences Between the Roman and Anglican Churches.

TwoLetters on the Occasion of the Rebellion in 1745.

A Word to the Wise: or,an Exhortation to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland.

Maxims ConcerningPatriotism.

Appendix: The First Edition of the Querist.

GeneralComments:

The books are very well produced. Cloth bound, acid-free paper,burgundy colored, with a simple and elegant design. All in all, this is ahandsome edition that will physically grace your library.

Fraser'scommentary and footnotes are helpful and abundant (note: this is a reprintof a 1901 work, so there is of course no commentary on how Berkeley hasbeen read in this century).

The only thing I would have wanted differentthan what I got would have been translations of the Latin essays intoEnglish.

Insofar as Berkeley the philosopher, he is one of the majorphilosophers of history, and one of the clearest writers. He is also oftenscathingly funny. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1843 edition by Thomas Tegg, London. ... Read more

Book Description
Unlike nearly all studies of Berkeley, this book looks at the full range of his work and links it with his life - focusing in particular on his religious thought.While aiming to present a clear picture of his career, this book breaks new ground on, among other topics, Berkeley's philosophical strategy, his account of immortality, his Jacobitism, his emotive theory of religious mysteries, and the motivation of his Siris (1744).Also distinctive is the attention paid to the Irish context of his thought, his symbolic frontispieces and portraits, and recent discoveries concerning his life and writings.The Berkeley that emerges from this study is deeper and more human that the usual picture of him as a starry-eyed idealist with every virtue under heaven. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exceptional, balanced introduction
George Berkeley was a leading advocate of idealistic empiricism in British philosophy. He studied divinity and later lectured at Trinity College, Dublin. He went to London to muster support for a venture to establish a college in Bermuda for colonists and Indians in America. Although his college never came to be, he spent three years in the colonies and was a stimulus to the development of higher education in America. This venture also laid the foundation for public reputation for piety. In 1734 he was appointed bishop at Cloyne, in which office he devoted himself to the social and economic plight of Ireland. Berman's biography is a subtle introduction to the life and thought of the second of the three great British empiricists, the first being John Locke and the third David Hume. Berkeley most remarked upon philosophical view is best expressed in the Latin expression esse est percipi, "to be is to be perceived." This is a type of philosophical idealism that considers that nothing can exist apart from minds and the contents of minds. To say that a material object exists is to say that it is or can be seen, heard, or otherwise perceived by a mind. Philosophers such as John Locke had adopted the view that human knowledge depends on the existence of material objects independent of minds or ideas. These objects causally produce ideas in our minds. Locke held that in some respects our ideas resemble objects in the material world, but some qualities that objects appear to have are not in the objects but depend upon our minds. That is, material objects possess in reality the measurable, quantitative qualities, such as size and weight, but their sense qualities, such as color, odor, and taste, depend upon the mind. Against this view Berkeley held that all the qualities of the object depend upon the mind. Since objects have stable and regular existence, the mind they depend on must be divine rather than human. In Berkeley's view, therefore, the existence of a divine mind follows directly from the commonsense belief that physical objects exist when no one is perceiving them. Berkeley believed that the Lockean view gave a basis for skepticism and atheism. His arguments have been of continuing interest to philosophers. In this biography the whole cloth of Berkeley's ideas and theology as well as his enthusiastic endorsement of tar-water as a replacement to strong spirits and a general aid to health are given full form. The philosophical Berkeley is important but the Bishop Berkeley, social reformer and enthusiast is definitely more interesting. Highly recommended as a humanist introduction to the good Bishop of Cloyne. ... Read more

Book Description
In this set of previously unpublished essays, noted scholarsfrom North America and Europe describe how the Irish philosopher GeorgeBerkeley (1684-1753) continues to inspire debates about his views onknowledge, reality, God, freedom, mathematics, and religion. Herediscussions about Berkeley's account of physical objects, minds, and God'srole in human experience are resolved within explicitly ethical andtheological contexts. This collection uses debates about Berkeley'simmaterialism and theory of ideas to open up a discussion of how divineactivity and human experience are reconciled in a recurring appeal to thelaws of nature. In that context, objects in the world are linked to oneanother by means of the perceptions and affections whereby minds come intobeing. The laws of nature thus become crucial for Berkeley in revealing howobjects are unintelligible apart from being apprehended by minds that arethemselves connected to one another in virtue of their ideas.

Overall, the essays indicate that, for Berkeley, our apprehension of theworld as real depends on recognizing how the world expressed by our ideasis not a mere aggregate of disconnected bodies but is rather an integratedunity of the things we experience. This provides an antidote against theloss of unity created by Descartes' isolation of the self from nature andLocke's account of objects in terms of simple, discrete ideas.

In juxtaposing discussions of Berkeley's later writings with his earlierworks, this volume shows not only how, for Berkeley, mind is intrinsicallylinked to things in nature as the principle of their determination inlaw-governed ways, but also how minds are practically related to theobjects of the physical world, one another, and ultimately God. ... Read more

Book Description
George Berkeley (1685-1753), also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an influential Irish philosopher whose primary philosophical achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory, summed up in his dictum, "Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived"), contends that individuals can only directly know sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter." His most widely-read works are: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) and Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713) wherein characters Philonous and Hylas represent Berkeley himself and his contemporary Locke. In 1734 he published The Analyst, a critique of the foundations of calculus, which was influential in the development of mathematics. ... Read more

Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

Book Description
In 1728 George Berkeley, the Irish philosopher and Anglican priest, came to America in the hope of founding a university in Bermuda and converting the Indians. He never reached Bermuda, where within a few years no Indians were left. Instead he settled in Newport, Rhode Island, one of the few places in New England that was hospitable to Anglicans. There his lively mind and sympathetic spirit involved him in a great variety of interests, though he stayed only thirty-three months.This book is a graceful snd authoritative account of an important episode in the life of a major philosopher and influential figure in the religious life of colonial New England. ... Read more

Book Description
Berkeley responded vigorously against the dominantmaterialist interpretation of seventeenth century physics, proclaimingthe dependence of the physical world on the spirit. This volume containsa selection of Berkeley's most important philosophical works, including"Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision," "Principles of Human Knowledge,""Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," and his correspondencewith Dr. Samuel Johnson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Perenial metaphysics
Berkeley's ideas arises perenially in pop culture, in movies based on the works of Phillip K Dick, and more recently, in the Matrix.

Impressive, very lucid and worth reading!
This book has proven to me to be one of the best philosophical works from the 18th century. Its clearness and lucidness surpasses many of the philosophers of that period. Even though Berkeley's theory and arguments may be considered most radical, he explains them with great care and you can almost take them for a fact.

Berkeley's concepts can be only examined out of pure reason basically, since his theory rest merely on speculative thought. Nor is it possible to show any concrete proof for his arguments, however I find it much harder to disapprove his concepts since it all depends on rational thinking and not material evidence. His views provoke an exciting approach to a new metaphysics and reality.

This book should be read with the utmost clearness of mind, and one must eliminate all prejudice from the mind. Although a fairly easy book to read, one must dedicate time to deep reflection when considering its arguments.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in philosophy, specially in metaphysics, this is a must-read!

A great alternative.
Berkeley is one of the great philosophers, although arguably the one whose position as one is the most tenuous.His argument is that matter doesn't exist, and all there is are ideas and impressions that comes to us from God.It's an argument that can be easily destroyed by even an amateur philosopher, but Berkeley writes so beautifully that he does at least make you stop and consider, if only for a moment, that perhaps he may just be right.He's worth reading if only for entertainment - I have to say that I think he is the best writer of all the great philosophers (except possibly Nietzsche), even though his system is the one I like the least.

If you are studying Berkeley seriously then it would be best to get the Oxford editions of his Principals and Three Dialogues.They contain much longer and better introductions and numerous other notes.But it may also be worth your money to buy this book too.Although the majority of this book is the two works just mentioned, also included in this collection are several other rare works of Berkeley's including his notebooks and De Motu among others.It's extremely difficult to get hold of these outside of the reprint of the 1901 Collected Works, and so if like me you don't have $450 to throw around, this is your best option, especially since it is so cheap. ... Read more

Book Description
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge is an early 18th century work by Irish Empiricist philosopher George Berkeley. The goal of this work was to refute the claims made by rival John Locke regarding the nature of human perception. Although Berkley, like Locke, agreed that there is an outsie world which caused ones ideas within one's own mind, Berkeley argued that, "Ideas can only resemble Ideas." His belief that mental ideas could only resemble other ideas, that the external world could only consist of ideas and not the phsyical form. This is an important work for those interested in the philosophical beliefs of George Berkeley and also those studying human perception. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

peculiar small press edition, but not bad
This is a small press' take on this classic work.The cover is the nicest looking part.There is a paragraph summary in typewriter set, or maybe old courier, that looks cheap.But the essay itself looks ok. Really not a bad book, and one who wants this work has to make choices, since there is no decent edition of Berkeley's works.There is zero critical material in this adequate, if overpriced, reprint.

Bishop George Berkeley is the paradigm 'idealist,' and is perhaps the 'whipping boy' of philosophy, but is a remarkably ingenious and overlooked figure who took naive perceptual consciousness to its limits, setting the stage for Hume.His theory of vision paved the way for his critique of Lockean empiricism. ... Read more