Overview
George Berkeley (1685–1753) was an Irish immaterialist philosopher and Anglican bishop of Cloyne. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues argue that esse est percipi for sensible things. He also wrote on vision, mathematics, and tar-water medicine. Handbook dates: 1685–1753. He hoped to found a college in Bermuda for colonial education.
Main ideas
Sensible objects are collections of ideas; matter as mind-independent substance is an empty abstraction. God continuously perceives the world, securing objectivity without material substrate. Abstract general ideas are critiqued; language can mislead philosophy. Visual language of nature suggests divine signification. Mathematics and science remain intact as studies of idea-regularities under divine order. Immaterialism aims to defeat skepticism and atheistic materialism together.
Major works
- Principles of Human Knowledge
- Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
- Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
- De Motu
Legacy
Berkeley became empiricism’s most radical ontologist and a permanent exam question in metaphysics. Phenomenalists and some physicists later echoed anti-material motifs. Idealism’s history runs through him to later British and German forms.