Berkeley’s ’Principles of Human Knowledge’: A Reader’s Guide

202 Pages·2009·1.63 MB·English

by  Alasdair Richmond

BERKELEY’S PRINCIPLES OF
HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
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Reader’s Guides available from Continuum
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics – Christopher Warne
Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge – Alasdair Richmond
Berkeley’s Three Dialogues – Aaron Garrett
Deleuze and Guattari’s Capitalism and Schizophrenia –
Ian Buchanan
Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition – Joe Hughes
Descartes’ Meditations – Richard Francks
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right – David Rose
Heidegger’s Being and Time – William Blattner
Heidegger’s Later Writings – Lee Braver
Hobbes’s Leviathan – Laurie M. Johnson Bagby
Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – Andrew Pyle
Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding –
Alan Bailey and Dan O’Brien
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – James Luchte
Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals – Paul Guyer
Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – John Preston
Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding –
William Uzgalis
Locke’s Second Treatise of Government – Paul Kelly
Mill’s On Liberty – Geoffrey Scarre
Mill’s Utilitarianism – Henry West
Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals – Daniel Conway
Plato’s Republic – Luke Purshouse
Rousseau’s The Social Contract – Christopher Wraight
Sartre’s Being and Nothingness – Sebastian Gardner
Spinoza’s Ethics – Thomas J. Cook
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus – Roger M. White
BERKELEY’S PRINCIPLES OF
HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
A Reader’s Guide
ALASDAIR RICHMOND
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Alasdair Richmond 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
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permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-10: HB: 1-8470-6028-5
PB: 1-8470-6029-3
ISBN-13: PB: 978-1-8470-6028-0
HB: 978-1-8470-6029-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Richmond, Alasdair.
Berkeley’s Principles of human knowledge : a reader’s guide /
Alasdair Richmond.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84706-028-0 (HB) – ISBN-13: 978-1-84706-029-7 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-84706-028-5 (HB) – ISBN-10: 1-84706-029-3 (pbk.)
1. Berkeley, George, 1685–1753. Treatise concerning the principles of
human knowledge. 2. Knowledge, Theory of. 3. Idealism. I. Title.
B1334.R53 2009
121–dc22
2008035401
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd,
Bodmin, Cornwall
With affection and respect, I’d like to dedicate
this book to an inspiring lecturer, supervisor
and colleague: Robin Cameron, Regius
Professor of Logic at the University of
Aberdeen 1979–2001.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Note on the Text of the Principles x
Abbreviations xii
1. Context 1
Biography 1
Berkeley’s Philosophical Background 4
2. Overview of Themes 13
The Central Philosophical Arguments 16
3. Reading the Text 21
Section 1: The Principles – Introduction (§§1–25) 21
Section 2: The Principles – Part I (§§1–156) 34
The Objects of Knowledge: Ideas and Spirits (§§1–33) 34
Philosophical Objections to Immaterialism,
and Replies (§§34–81) 74
Advantages of Immaterialism: Philosophy, Science,
Mathematics and Religion (§§82–156) 110
4. Reception and Influence 154
5. Guide to Further Reading 162
Notes 165
Index 181
vii
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PREFACE
George Berkeley (1685–1753) is an unusual philosopher, in
that he was widely known among the religious, cultural (espe-
cially literary) and political worlds of his day. The key tenet
of his philosophy is easy to state and (hence?) easy to misun-
derstand and to misrepresent. In a nutshell, Berkeley was an
idealist and therefore held that everything that exists does so
either by being a mind or by being presented to a mind. From
this simple-enough sounding beginning, Berkeley’s philosophy
ramifies in a number of different directions. In the course of his
major philosophical work, the Principles of Human Knowledge,
he proceeds to try to reform our understanding of philosophy,
science, language and religion. This book aims to take read-
ers through every section of Berkeley’s Principles of Human
Knowledge, with a view to sketching Berkeley’s arguments,
antecedents and influence. (Some of the more notorious mis-
understandings of Berkeley will also be sketched, along with
some hints on how to avoid them.)
What follows is intended as a commentary on Berkeley’s
Principles, aimed primarily at undergraduate students of phil-
osophy, and ideally should be read in close conjunction with
the Principles itself. It is not intended as a stand-alone intro-
duction to, or a ‘reading’ of, Berkeley’s philosophical project
as a whole.
The literature on Berkeley is large, and (alas) it isn’t prac-
tical to refer in this book to all the interesting and worthwhile
Berkeley material in existence. (So please don’t feel offended
by any omissions – considerations of space have forced either
minimal or even non-existent references to many fine and
worthwhile pieces of Berkeleyana.)
ix