The Moral Philosophy of George Berkeley

249 Pages·1970·8.28 MB·English

by  Paul J. Olscamp (auth.)

THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF GEORGE
BERKELEY
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
33
PAUL J. OLSCAMP
THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF
GEORGE BERKELEY
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Univ. of California, La Jolla)
Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); J. Collins (St. Louis Univ.); P. Costabel (Paris);
A. Crombie (Oxford)f I. Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine-Verwey (Amsterdam);
H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Goudier (Paris); T. Gregory (Rome); T. E. Jessop (Hull);
A. Koyre (Paris); P. O. Kristeller (Columbia Univ.); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris);
S. Lindroth (Upsala); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); P. Mesnard (Tours); J. Orcibal (Paris);
I.S.Revah(Paris); G.Sebba (Emory Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton (Oxford); J. Tans
(Groningen); G. Tonelli (Pise).
THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF
GEORGE BERKELEY
by
PAUL J. OLSCAMP
•
MARTINUS NIJHOFF - THE HAGUE - 1970
C I969 by Martinus Nijholl, The Hague, Netherlands
Sojicover reprint o/the hardcover 1st edition 1969
All rights t'eserved, including the right to translate or to
re(>1'Oduu this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN·13: 978·94.()10-3201·8 e·ISBN·13: 978·94·010-3199·8
DOl: 10.\007/978·94·010-3\99-8
For Joyce, whom I love
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I
CHAPTER I: The language of the Author of Nature 10
I. The Nature of the Metaphor 10
2. Signs and Symbols, Suggestion andJudgment 20
3. Further Development, and Natural Laws 30
4. A Theory of Truth, and Natural Laws 38
CHAPTER II: Utilitarian and Rule-Utilitarian Elements in
Berkeley's Normative Ethics. 47
I. Kinds of Pleasures and Pains, and the Moral End of Man 47
2. Passive Obedience and Moral Rules 56
3. Two Kinds of Moral Rules, and some Theological 67
Implications
4. Some Rule-Utilitarian Elements 76
5. A Preliminary Summing-Up 82
CHAPTER III: Ethical Acts and Free Will 85
I. Acts and Consequences 87
2. Free Will 91
3. Other Evidence, Guilt, and Comments 98
4. Preliminary Conclusions 102
CHAPTER IV: The Role ofG od and the Definition of Good 104
I. The Necessary Argument 104
2. The Probable Argument 110
3. Another Kind of Evidence, and the Meaning of "Good". 7
1 1
4. Criticisms 1 22
VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER V: Berkeley and the Emotive Uses of Ethical Language 130
I. Abstract General Ideas and the "Familiar" Uses of
Words 131
2. More About Berkeley's Theory of Truth 139
3. An Important Passage and a Working Example 149
CHAPTER VI: Berkeley and Shaftesbury 154
1. Shaftesbury's Ethical System 155
2. More about Moral Sense, and Enthusiasm 161
3. Berkeley versus Shaftesbury 165
CHAPTER VII: Berkeley and Mandeville 173
I. Mandeville's Theory of Social Ethics and Human
Nature 173
2. Berkeley versus Mandeville 179
CHAPTER VIII: The Deists
I. The Principles of Deism
2. Some Individual Deists
CHAPTER IX: Peter Browne, Berkeley, and the Deists 204
I. Peter Browne and Analogical Arguments 204
2. Browne and Berkeley 208
3. Berkeley versus the Deists
215
CHAPTER X: Conclusion
I. Moral Philosophy
2. Did Berkeley have a Moral Philosophy?
3. Some General Criticisms
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABBREVIATIONS OF BERKELEY'S WORKS
All references to Berkeley's Works are to the Nelson and Sons standard
edition, edited by Professors Jessop and Luce. The abbreviations
given here are used, and all references to other works are also abbrevi
ated. The abbreviations for the other works may be found after the
corresponding full titles in the Bibliography.
C - Correspondence
M - A Discourse to the Magistrates
SE - Sermons
G E - Guardian Essays
Q - the Querist
A - Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
TV - An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
D - Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous
I - Introduction to the Principles
DI - Draft Introduction to the Principles
P - The Principles of Human Knowledge
PC - Philosophical Commentaries
PO - Passive Obedience
S - Siris
TVVE - Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained
INTRODUCTION
Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all,
of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked
up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have
first raised a dust, and then complain, we cannot see.1
... there are some passages that, taken by themselves, are very liable (nor
could it be remedied) to gross misinterpretation, and to be charged with
most absurd consequences, which, nevertheless, upon an entire perusal will
appear not to follow from them.2
In an effort to comply with these excellent principles of Berkeley's, I
have tried to avoid complex language throughout this book, and to
give all of his works the careful scrutiny he urges in order to avoid
misplaced emphasis and quoting out of context.
George Berkeley waS born in Dysert Castle, Thomastown, Kilkenny,
Ireland, in 1685. He is among the best known of Western philosophers,
but a brief sketch of the highp oints of his life might nonetheless be of
some interest. His father William Berkeley was related to Lord
Berkeley of Stratton, who was the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from
1670 to 1672. His mother was probably related to General Wolfe, the
conqueror of Montcalm in Canada. He was educated at Kilkenny
School, and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he received Bachelor's
and Master's degrees in 1704 and 1707 respectively. For a time he was
a fellow of Trinity College. In 1721 Berkeley received both Bachelor of
Arts and Doctor of Arts degrees in Divinity, and in 1734 he became the
Bishop of Cloyne, after a long period dating from the publication of
Passive Obedience in 1712, during which he was denied preferment on
the basis ofa suspicion that he was sympathetic to theJacobites.
Berkeley was well-travelled, even by present-day standards. In 1713
1 P.,3
2 Preface to P
2 INTRODUCTION
he made his first trip to the Continent, serving as chaplain to Lord
Peterborough, a position he secured through the influence of his
friend Jonathan Swift. He intended to visit Sicily, but only got as far
as Leghorn. Then in I 7 I6, he went abroad with St. George Ashe and
visited Rome, Paris, N apels, Ischia, Sicily and various other places.
As we shall see, this was a disastrous trip for the rest ofthe philosophical
world. In I728, he came to the United States, though naturally it was
not known by that name then. He intended to found a school for
Indians on Bermuda, and while waiting for the funds to arrive from
the British parliament, he lived in Rhode Island until I 73 I. The funds,
although voted, never arrived. In the same year that he sailed for the
new world, he married Anne Foster.
In I752, in ill health, Berkeley decided to visit Oxford, and on
January I4th, I753, he died there. To avoid live burial, not uncommon
in those days, he directed in his will that he be kept above ground until
putrefaction had begun. This was done, and then he was buried.
Berkeley was a man of many and varied interests. Maynard Keynes
ranks him among the most astute economists of his time, along with
Adam Smith, Malthus, Paley, Fleetwood and Swift.3 He was pro
foundly interested in mathematics, and his criticisms of Newtonian
mathematics and physics, especially of the theories of the infinitesimal
calculus and absolute space and time are acute and remarkably
modern. In at least one article he has been called a precursor of Ernst
Mach and Albert Einstein!4 His researches with tarwater, humorous
as they now seem, witness his sincere interest in medicine, and his
practical attempts to aid his parishoners by discovering a remedy for a
serious and widespread illness of the times. He is still listed as the
discoverer of tarwater, an extract from resin, which is known today as
a patent medicine in England.
But his first and last love was philosophy. The Dictioliary of National
Biography claims that Berkeley'S Three Dialogues Between Hylas and
Philonous is the "finest specimen in our language of the conduct of
argument by dialogue". If it has a rival, I think it is Berkeley's own
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher, written on the beach at Rhode
Island and first published in I732. It was popular enough to warrant
a second edition in that same year. His other works, especially The
3 Q.,P. 96
4 Popper, Karl, "Berkeley as a Precursor to Einstein and Mach", forthcoming in a new
edition of Berkeley's The Principles of Human Knowledge, edited by C. M. Turbayne and to be
published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis