Table Of Contentberkeley
s The Blackwell Great Minds series gives readers a strong sense of
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Min er the fundamental views of the great western thinkers and captures
dl the relevance of these figures to the way we think and live today.
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Gr ve 1 Kant by Allen W. Wood
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ac te 4 Sartre by Katherine J. Morris
Bl Edi 5 Charles Darwin by Michael Ruse
6 Schopenhauer by Robert Wicks
7 Shakespeare’s Ideas by David Bevington
8 Camus by David Sherman
9 Kierkegaard by M. Jamie Ferreira
10 Mill by Wendy Donner and Richard Fumerton
11 Socrates by George H. Rudebusch
12 Maimonides by T.M. Rudavsky
13 Wittgenstein by Hans Sluga
14 Locke by Samuel Rickless
15 Newton by Andrew Janiak
16 Berkeley by Margaret Atherton
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berkeley
Margaret Atherton
This edition first published 2020
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Atherton, Margaret, author.
Title: Berkeley / Margaret Atherton.
Description: First Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2018. | Series: Blackwell
great minds ; 16 | Includes index. | Description based on print version
record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018035609 (print) | LCCN 2018038183 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119532057 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119532071 (ePub) | ISBN 9781405149167
(hardcover) | ISBN 9781405149174 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Berkeley, George, 1685-1753.
Classification: LCC B1348 (ebook) | LCC B1348 .A84 2018 (print) | DDC
192–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035609
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: George Berkeley. Line engraving by William Holl published by Wellcome
Library, London is licensed under CC BY.
Set in 9/12pt Trump Mediaeval by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India
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For Toby, without which…
contents
preface x
acknowledgments xiii
abbreviations xiv
1 berkeley’s life and work 1
1685–1713 2
1713–1734 4
1734–1753 7
2 an essay towards a new theory of vision 13
Distance Cannot Be Seen of Itself and Immediately 16
We Don’t See Distance by Anything Necessarily Connected with It 16
Distance Is Only Suggested to Our Thoughts by Certain Visible Ideas
and Sensations Attending Vision 18
What We Learn from the Man Born Blind 18
Heterogeneity, Visible Ideas, and Tangible Meanings 19
Size Perception and the “Picture” Picture 21
Situation Perception and the “Picture” Picture 25
“The Main Part and Pillar” 27
Vision Is a Language 29
3 principles of human knowledge: the introduction 33
Berkeley’s Outline of His Project (PHK Introd. 1–5) 34
Abstract Ideas (PHK Introd. 6–17) 35
The Abuse of Language (PHK Introd. 18–25) 43
4 principles of human knowledge: berkeley’s summary statement of his
position (PHK 1–33) 46
PHK 1–7: The Statement of Idealism 47
PHK 8–25: The Refutation of Materialism 54
PHK 25–33: Minds and Ideas: Berkeley’s Positive Argument 59
5 principles of human knowledge: berkeley’s replies to objections (PHK 34–84) 67
First Objection (PHK 34–40) 68
Second Objection (PHK 41) 69
Third Objection (PHK 42–44) 69
Fourth Objection (PHK 45–48) 71
Fifth Objection (PHK 49) 73
Sixth Objection (PHK 50) 74
Seventh Objection (PHK 51–53) 75
Eighth Objection (PHK 54–57)8 75
Tenth Objection (PHK 58–59) 77
Eleventh Objection (PHK 60–66) 79
Twelfth Objection (PHK 67–81) 82
Objections from Religion (PHK 82–84) 82
Conclusions 83
6 principles of human knowledge: the consequences of the
principles (PHK 85–156) 86
General Consequences for Knowledge of Ideas (PHK 86–100) 87
The Consequences for Knowledge of Natural Philosophy
(PHK 101–134) 91
Newton on Absolute Space and Motion (PHK 110–117) 94
Consequences for Our Knowledge of Mathematics
(PHK 118–134) 100
Consequences for Knowledge of Spirits (PHK 135–156) 106
Consequences for Knowledge of God (PHK 145–156) 108
7 three dialogues between hylas and philonous: the preface and
first dialogue, 1 171–194 114
The Preface 114
First Dialogue, 171–194 116
Initial Scene Setting 116
Sensible Things 117
What Is Immediately Perceived 118
“To Exist Is One Thing, and to Be Perceived Is Another” 122
Heat 123
Further Sensible Qualities 126
Colors 127
The Very Same Arguments 129
Summing Up 131
8 three dialogues between hylas and philonous: first dialogue, 2 195–207 135
The Act–Object Distinction 136
Modes, Qualities, and Substratum 137
The Unconceived Tree (The Master Argument) 138
“Without the Mind” and “At a Distance” 139
Two Kinds of Objects 140
The Relationship between the Principles and Three Dialogues 144
9 three dialogues between hylas and philonous: the second dialogue 147
A Psychophysical Cause of Ideas 147
The Real Beauties of Nature 148
Ideas Caused by God 150
Matter (and God) as the Cause of Our Ideas 152
What Has Been Achieved in the Second Dialogue 155
viii contents
10 three dialogues between hylas and philonous: the third dialogue 157
What Philonous Believes 159
An Annihilation Objection 161
Knowledge of Immaterial Substance 162
The Gardener and His Cherry Tree 165
Real Things and Imaginary Things 167
Things and Ideas 167
Spirits as Causes 168
Divine Causation and Human Agency 168
Substance and Spiritual Substance 171
Trusting the Senses 172
Further on Substance and Spirits 173
God and Pain 174
Matter and Gravity 175
Explaining the Phenomena 176
Believing in Matter 177
Introducing Novelties 177
Changing Ideas into Things 178
Perceiving the Same Thing and Perceiving Cherries 182
Existence in the Mind 184
The Creation Story 185
Philonous’s Defense of His Theory 188
Final Thoughts 191
11 taking stock: berkeley’s three books 199
index 208
contents ix
preface
Reading Berkeley
George Berkeley wrote the books we will be concerned with in the early years
of the eighteenth century. He wrote for an early eighteenth‐century audience
and not for a twenty‐first‐century audience. This means, as historians of phi-
losophy are fond of pointing out, that there will be special challenges to readers
of the twenty‐first century. We cannot hope to just pick up a work of Berkeley’s
and read it through with understanding. The books Berkeley had been reading,
against which he was measuring his own ideas, are not the same as the books
being read now, the very nature of philosophy, what counts as philosophy, was
different in the early eighteenth century than is the case today, and even the
vocabulary in which Berkeley expressed his ideas is different from the way in
which we use similar words today. And of course, the early eighteenth century
presented a cultural milieu and political and social demands quite different
from our own. All these and more represent significant challenges to the con-
temporary reader and so will have to be addressed in a book like this one that
seeks to help a modern reader to understand historical work.
Berkeley himself, however, seemed to think that his work presented chal-
lenges to any reader, even one of his own time, thoroughly immersed in the
culture existing when the books were written. In each of his two major works,
Berkeley wrote prefaces in which he issued requests to his readers to help
them overcome what he saw as difficulties peculiar to the books they will be
reading. In the Preface to the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley urged
his readers to impartially consider the truth of what he had written. In order to
help them in this endeavor, he told his readers:
I make it my request that the reader suspend his judgment, till he has once
at least, read the whole through with that degree of attention and thought
which the subject matter shall seem to deserve. (PHK, Preface, p. 23)
Berkeley’s advice is excellent. It is always a good idea to read a piece of
writing through from beginning to end before rushing to judgment. But Berke-
ley also seems to think that there are special problems attached to reading
a piece of philosophy such as the one he has written. Reading philosophy is
hard. It is never the case that you can pick up a work of philosophy and read
it through hastily and expect to understand it. Berkeley is aware that his work
contains claims that are perhaps unusual and so will be very easily misunder-
stood. The remedy is to go slow, to pay attention to actual conclusions drawn,
rather than what might immediately appear to follow, to see where the argu-
ments lead and, in general, to read painstakingly and thoughtfully.
While Berkeley removed this Preface from later editions of the Principles,
he did not back off his faith in the efficacy of the advice it contained, for
he added a Preface to later editions of Three Dialogues between Hylas and
Philonous giving similar, if more elaborate advice.
It remains, that I desire the reader to withhold his censure of these Dialogues,
till he has read them through. Otherwise, he may lay them aside in a mistake
of their design, or on account of difficulties or objections which he would
find answered in the sequel. A treatise of this nature would require to be once
read over coherently, in order to comprehend its design, the proofs, solution
of difficulties, and the connexion and disposition of its parts. If it be thought
to deserve a second reading; this I imagine, will make the entire scheme very
plain: especially, if recourse be had to an Essay I wrote, some years since, upon
vision, and the Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.
Wherein divers notions are further pursued, or placed in different lights, and
other points handled, which naturally tend to confirm and illustrate them.
(3D, Preface, p. 169)
Again, Berkeley is giving excellent advice to any reader. Naturally, no one
likes to think that they are misunderstanding or misinterpreting what they
read. Berkeley is saying that the procedure you need to follow in order to ensure
that this is the case is, first, read the work through from beginning to end, so
that you understand its structure, where the various proofs and arguments are
heading, so that you can pin down exactly what claims are required, and how
objections might be answered. Then when you have an understanding of the
structure of the argument, read it through again a second time, so that you can
work your way through what confusions remain. Finally, pay attention to other
works written by the same author, which will augment your understanding or
correct remaining misunderstandings.
Excellent advice, as I have said. Inasmuch as it is advice Berkeley himself
provides to his readers, it would seem that any reader of Berkeley, in justice
to the author, ought to heed this advice. Such advice, moreover, might be par-
ticularly helpful as an antidote to our modern culture, which tends to think
in article‐length chunks and by means of easily regimented arguments. It can
be a little too tempting to pull out easily named pieces of argument and dis-
cuss them without attention to the context in which they appear, and many
contemporary philosophers writing on Berkeley have fallen prey to this temp-
tation. Berkeley addresses his advice to readers, however, and not to critics or
expositors like myself, and it is not obvious how critics and authors of books
like this one should follow his advice. It would seem that the most natural
preface xi
