Reexamining Berkeley's Philosophy

Reexamining Berkeley's Philosophy
Author: Stephen Hartley Daniel
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0802093485

George Berkeley (1685-1753) is perhaps most famous for his assertion that our knowledge of the world is nothing other than the experience of our ideas. Reexamining Berkeley's Philosophy examines this aspect of Berkeley's thought, arguing that such a viewpoint assumes that physical objects and minds are better understood when discussed in the contexts of science, morality, and religion. This collection confronts the question: how can we know anything about the world if all we know are our ideas? Comprised of eleven previously unpublished essays by leading scholars in the field, Reexamining Berkeley's Philosophy demonstrates how things in the world are intrinsically related to the sequence of experiences that constitute minds. This collection also discusses how the harmony of experience reveals strategies for recognizing the inherently active character of reality. Ultimately, this volume represents a major contribution to the study of Berkeley's philosophy by critiquing the tendency to generalize his thought as a version of theologically modified solipsism. In this way, it is a unique and invaluable addition to Berkeley scholarship.

Berkeley's Thought

Berkeley's Thought
Author: George S. Pappas
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501729314

In this highly original account of Bishop George Berkeley's epistemological and metaphysical theories, George S. Pappas seeks to determine precisely what doctrines the philosopher held and what arguments he put forward to support them. Specifically, Pappas overturns accepted opinions about Berkeley's famous attack on the Lockean doctrine of abstract ideas. Berkeley's criticism of these ideas had been thought relevant only to his views on language and to his nominalism; Pappas persuasively argues that Berkeley's ideas about abstraction are crucial to nearly all of the fundamental principles that he defends.Pappas demonstrates how an adequate appreciation of Berkeley's views on abstraction can lead to an improved understanding of his important principle of esse is percipi, and of the arguments Berkeley proposes in support of this principle. Pappas also takes up Berkeley's widely rejected claim to be a philosopher of common sense. He assesses the validity of this self-description and considers why Berkeley might have chosen to align himself with a commonsense position. Pappas shows how three core concepts—abstraction, perception, and common sense—are central to and interdependent in the work of one of the major figures of early modern Western thought.

George Berkeley: Religion and Science in the Age of Enlightenment

George Berkeley: Religion and Science in the Age of Enlightenment
Author: Silvia Parigi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2010-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9048192439

George Berkeley was considered "the most engaging and useful man in Ireland in the eighteenth century". This hyperbolic statement refers both to Berkeley’s life and thought; in fact, he always considered himself a pioneer called to think and do new things. He was an empiricist well versed in the sciences, an amateur of the mechanical arts, as well as a metaphysician; he was the author of many completely different discoveries, as well as a very active Christian, a zealous bishop and the apostle of the Bermuda project. The essays collected in this volume, written by some leading scholars, aim to reconstruct the complexity of Berkeley’s figure, without selecting "major" works, nor searching for "coherence" at any cost. They will focus on different aspects of Berkeley’s thought, showing their intersections; they will explore the important contributions he gave to various scientific disciplines, as well as to the eighteenth-century philosophical and theological debate. They will highlight the wide influence that his presently most neglected or puzzling books had at the time; they will refuse any anachronistical trial of Berkeley’s thought, judged from a contemporary point of view.

The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy

The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy
Author: G. A. Johnston
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2023-01-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317842510

First published in 1988. This is part of a fifteen volume series reproducing classic studies and including never before published titles. In his book the author throws light on the evolution of Berkeley’s thought and philosophy by a careful study of his works in their chronological sequence and by detailed reference to his relations with his predecessors and contemporaries.

Berkeley: A Guide for the Perplexed

Berkeley: A Guide for the Perplexed
Author: Talia Mae Bettcher
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0826489907

The author provides a cogent and reliable survey of the various concepts and paradoxes of George Berkeley's thought.

George Berkeley and Early Modern Philosophy

George Berkeley and Early Modern Philosophy
Author: Stephen H. Daniel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2021
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192893890

Stephen Daniel presents a study of the philosophy of George Berkeley in the intellectual context of his times, with a particular focus on how, for Berkeley, mind is related to its ideas. Daniel does not assume that thinkers like Descartes, Malebranche, or Locke define for Berkeley the context in which he develops his own thought. Instead, he indicates how Berkeley draws on a tradition that informed his early training and that challenges much of the early modern thought with which he is often associated. Specifically, this book indicates how Berkeley's distinctive treatment of mind (as the activity whereby objects are differentiated and related to one another) highlights how mind neither precedes the existence of objects nor exists independently of them. This distinctive way of understanding the relation of mind and objects allows Berkeley to appropriate ideas from his contemporaries in ways that transform the issues with which he is engaged. The resulting insights--for example, about how God creates the minds that perceive objects--are only now starting to be fully appreciated.

The Bloomsbury Companion to Berkeley

The Bloomsbury Companion to Berkeley
Author: Bertil Belfrage
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 537
Release: 2017-09-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1441128271

Due to his theory of 'immaterialism' and Schopenhauer's regard of him as the 'father of idealism', George Berkeley (1685-1753) is one of the most important thinkers of the Early Modern period. The Bloomsbury Companion to Berkeley is a comprehensive one volume reference guide to his life, thought and work. In twenty six original essays, a team of leading international scholars of Modern Philosophy cover all of Berkeley's writings including unpublished manuscripts and correspondence, thus providing readers with a complete and accessible source of information to the entire corpus of Berkeley's writings. The book includes extended essays on key themes in Berkeley's thought as well as sections covering Berkeley's life and times, and also his intellectual influence and legacy.

The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy

The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy
Author: G. A. Johnston
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781330317907

Excerpt from The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy No apology would seem to be required for an attempt to examine the historical development of Berkeley's philosophy as a whole. In this book I have tried to throw light on the evolution of Berkeley's thought by a careful study of his works in their chronological sequence and by detailed reference to his relations with his predecessors and con temporaries. I have naturally devoted most attention to what is central in Berkeley's philosophy - his metaphysics and theory of knowledge, - but I have not neglected the other problems that were touched by his wide-roving mind. Every student of Berkeley owes a debt of enduring gratitude to the careful and loving work of Campbell Fraser. In addition to his indispensable commentaries and memoirs, I have sought help from every source that seemed likely to afford it. In general, however, I have found Berkeley to be his own best interpreter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Berkeley's Three Dialogues

Berkeley's Three Dialogues
Author: Stefan Storrie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2018
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198755686

This is the first volume of essays on Berkeley's Three Dialogues, a classic of early modern philosophy. Leading experts cover all the central issues in the text: the rejection of material substance, the nature of perception and reality, the limits of human knowledge, and the perceived threats of skepticism, atheism, and immorality.