George Berkeley
George Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrkli/ BARK-lee;[5][6] 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the mind and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism.[7]
For other people named George Berkeley, see George Berkeley (disambiguation).
George Berkeley
1734–1753
1709 (deacon)
1710 (priest)
18 January 1734
12 March 1685
14 January 1753 (aged 67)
Oxford, England
Anne Forster
6
Philosophy career
Trinity College Dublin
(B.A., 1704; M.A. 1707)
In 1709, Berkeley published his first major work, An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, in which he discussed the limitations of human vision and advanced the theory that the proper objects of sight are not material objects, but light and colour.[8] This foreshadowed his chief philosophical work, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, in 1710, which, after its poor reception, he rewrote in dialogue form and published under the title Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in 1713.[9] In this book, Berkeley's views were represented by Philonous (Greek: "lover of mind"), while Hylas ("hyle", Greek: "matter") embodies the Irish thinker's opponents, in particular John Locke.
Berkeley argued against Isaac Newton's doctrine of absolute space, time and motion in De Motu[10] (On Motion), published 1721. His arguments were a precursor to the views of Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein.[11][12] In 1732, he published Alciphron, a Christian apologetic against the free-thinkers, and in 1734, he published The Analyst, a critique of the foundations of calculus, which was influential in the development of mathematics.[13]
Interest in Berkeley's work increased after World War II because he tackled many of the issues of paramount interest to philosophy in the 20th century, such as the problems of perception, the difference between primary and secondary qualities, and the importance of language.[14]
Influence[edit]
Berkeley's Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge was published three years before the publication of Arthur Collier's Clavis Universalis, which made assertions similar to those of Berkeley's.[69] However, there seemed to have been no influence or communication between the two writers.[70]
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote of him: "Berkeley was, therefore, the first to treat the subjective starting-point really seriously and to demonstrate irrefutably its absolute necessity. He is the father of idealism...".[71]
Berkeley is considered one of the originators of British empiricism.[72] A linear development is often traced from three great "British Empiricists", leading from Locke through Berkeley to Hume.[73]
Berkeley influenced many modern philosophers, especially David Hume. Thomas Reid admitted that he put forward a drastic criticism of Berkeleianism after he had been an admirer of Berkeley's philosophical system for a long time.[74] Berkeley's "thought made possible the work of Hume and thus Kant, notes Alfred North Whitehead".[75] Some authors draw a parallel between Berkeley and Edmund Husserl.[76]
When Berkeley visited America, the American educator Samuel Johnson visited him, and the two later corresponded. Johnson convinced Berkeley to establish a scholarship program at Yale and to donate a large number of books, as well as his plantation, to the college when the philosopher returned to England. It was one of Yale's largest and most important donations; it doubled its library holdings, improved the college's financial position and brought Anglican religious ideas and English culture into New England.[77] Johnson also took Berkeley's philosophy and used parts of it as a framework for his own American Practical Idealism school of philosophy. As Johnson's philosophy was taught to about half the graduates of American colleges between 1743 and 1776,[78] and over half of the contributors to the Declaration of Independence were connected to it,[79] Berkeley's ideas were indirectly a foundation of the American Mind.
Outside of America, during Berkeley's lifetime, his philosophical ideas were comparatively uninfluential.[80] But interest in his doctrine grew from the 1870s when Alexander Campbell Fraser, "the leading Berkeley scholar of the nineteenth century",[81] published The Works of George Berkeley. A powerful impulse to serious studies in Berkeley's philosophy was given by A. A. Luce and Thomas Edmund Jessop, "two of the twentieth century's foremost Berkeley scholars",[82] thanks to whom Berkeley scholarship was raised to the rank of a special area of historico-philosophical science. In addition, the philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne wrote extensively on Berkeley's use of language as a model for visual, physiological, natural and metaphysical relationships.[83][84][85][86]
The proportion of Berkeley scholarship, in literature on the history of philosophy, is increasing. This can be judged from the most comprehensive bibliographies on George Berkeley. During the period of 1709–1932, about 300 writings on Berkeley were published. That amounted to 1.5 publications per year. During the course of 1932–1979, over one thousand works were brought out, i.e., 20 works per year. Since then, the number of publications has reached 30 per annum.[87] In 1977 publication began in Ireland of a special journal on Berkeley's life and thought (Berkeley Studies). In 1988, the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne established the International Berkeley Essay Prize Competition at the University of Rochester in an effort to advance scholarship and research on the works of Berkeley.[88][89]
Other than philosophy, Berkeley also influenced modern psychology with his work on John Locke's theory of association and how it could be used to explain how humans gain knowledge in the physical world. He also used the theory to explain perception, stating that all qualities were, as Locke would call them, "secondary qualities", therefore perception laid entirely in the perceiver and not in the object. These are both topics today studied in modern psychology.[90]
Commemoration[edit]
Both the University of California, Berkeley, and the city of Berkeley, California, were named after him, although the pronunciation has evolved to suit American English: (/ˈbɜːrkli/ BURK-lee). The naming was suggested in 1866 by Frederick H. Billings, a trustee of what was then called the College of California. Billings was inspired by Berkeley's Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America, particularly the final stanza: "Westward the course of empire takes its way; the first four Acts already past, a fifth shall close the Drama with the day; time's noblest offspring is the last".[91]
The Town of Berkley, currently the least populated town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, was founded on 18 April 1735 and named for George Berkeley.
A residential college and an Episcopal seminary at Yale University also bear Berkeley's name.
"Bishop Berkeley's Gold Medals" were two awards given annually at Trinity College Dublin, "provided outstanding merit is shown", to candidates answering a special examination in Greek. The awards were founded in 1752 by Berkeley.[92] However, they have not been awarded since 2011.[93] Other elements of Berkeley's legacy at Trinity are currently under review (As of 2023) due to his support of slavery. For example, the library at Trinity that was named after him in 1978 is to be "de-named", Trinity announced in April 2023. Another memorialization of him in the form of a stained glass window will remain, but used as part of "a retain-and-explain approach" where his legacy will be given further context.[93][94]
An Ulster History Circle blue plaque commemorating him is located in Bishop Street Within, the city of Derry.
Berkeley's farmhouse in Middletown, Rhode Island, is preserved as Whitehall Museum House, also known as Berkeley House, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. St. Columba's Chapel, located in the same town, was formerly named "The Berkeley Memorial Chapel", and the appellation still survives at the end of the formal name of the parish, "St. Columba's, the Berkeley Memorial Chapel".
