berkeley s The Blackwell Great Minds series gives readers a strong sense of d 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. t a a N e n Gr ve 1 Kant by Allen W. Wood well by Ste 23 ADuesgcuasrttiense bbyy AGnadreréth G Bo.m Mbaatythews k d 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 b la c k w e ll g r e a t m in d s berkeley Margaret Atherton This edition first published 2020 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd All rights reserved. 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Set in 9/12pt Trump Mediaeval by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 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