Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley PDF
Preview Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley
ESSA YS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF GEORGE BERKELEY SYNTHESE HISTORICAL LIBRARY TEXTS AND STUDIES IN THE HIS TOR Y OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY Editors: N. KRETZMANN, Cornell University G. NUCHELMANS, University 0/ Leyden L. M. DE RUK, University 0/ Leyden Editorial Board: J. BERG, Munich Institute o/Technology F. DEL PUNTA, Linacre College, Oxford D. P. HENRY, University o/Manchester J. HINTIKKA, Florida State University, Tallahassee B. MATES, University o/Cali/ornia, Berkeley J. E. MURDOCH; Harvard University G. PATZIG, University 0/G6ttingen VOLUME 29 ESSAYS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF GEORGE BERKELEY Edited by ERNEST SOSA Department of Philosophy, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LANCASTER/TOKYO Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Essays on the philosophy of George Berkeley. (Synthese historical library; v. 29) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Berkeley, George, 1685-1753. I. Sosa, Ernest. II. Series. B1348.E734 1987 192 86-27978 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8628-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-4798-6 DOl: 10.1 007/978-94-009-4798-6 Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322,3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland. All Rights Reserved © 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1987 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Contributors xi Abbreviations xiii PART ONE METAPHYSICS: COMPARISON WITH LEIBNIZ AND LOCKE The Phenomenalisms of Leibniz and Berkeley Margaret D. Wilson 3 Something-I-Know-Not-What: Berkeley on Locke on Substance Daniel Garber 23 PART TWO THOUGHT AND REFERENCE: I. ABSTRACT IDEAS Berkeley's Anti-Abstractionism Margaret Atherton 45 Berkeley's Objection to Abstract Ideas and Unconceived Objects Martha Brandt Bolton 61 PART THREE THOUGHT AND REFERENCE: II. IMAGINATION AND ARCHETYPES Berkeley's Imagination Ian Tipton 85 Berkeley on "Archetype" Genevieve Brykman 103 PART FOUR EPISTEMOLOGY: GOD AND MATTER Divine Ideas and Berkeley's Proofs of God's Existence M. R. Ayers 115 Berkeley's Divine Language Argument A. David Kline 129 Berkeley and Epistemology Robert Merrihew Adams 143 VI Table of Contents PART FIVE PERCEPTION: VISUALS AND IMMEDIATE PERCEPTION On the Status of Visuals in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision Phillip D. Cummins 165 Berkeley and Immediate Perception George S. Pappas 195 PART SIX HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP: INTERPRETATION AND RECEPTION A New Approach to Berkeley's Philosophical Notebooks Bertil Belfrage 217 On the Early Reception of Berkeley in Germany Wolfgang Breidert 231 Bibliography Matthew Kapstein 243 Index of Personal Names 261 Subject Index 265 PREFACE A tercentenary conference of March, 1985, drew to Newport, Rhode Island, nearly all the most distinguished Berkeley scholars now active. The conference was organized by the International Berkeley Society, with the support of several institutions and many people (whose help is acknowl edged below). This volume represents a selection of the lead papers deliv ered at that conference, most now revised. The Cartesian marriage of Mind and Body has proved an uneasy union. Each side has claimed supremacy and usurped the rights of the other. In anglophone philosophy Body has lately had it all pretty much its own way, most dramatically in the Disappearance Theory of Mind, whose varieties vary in appeal and sophistication, but uniformly shock sensibili ties. Only recently has Mind reasserted itself, yet the voices of support are already a swelling chorus. "Welcome," Berkeley would respond, since " ... all the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth ... have not a subsis tence without a mind ... " (Principles, sect. 6). In fairness, Berkeley does playa Disappearance trick of his own - with Matter now into the hat. But his act is far subtler than any brute denial of the obvious, and seeks rather to explain than bluntly to reject. Perhaps we are today better prepared to appreciate his insights. The present collection spans the breadth of Berkeley's thought in metaphysics and epistemology. Its table of contents shows a division by fields all under wide and active cultivation today, but already well tilled three centuries ago. The Mind-Body struggle for metaphysical supremacy serves as opening topic, followed by the notion of substance crucial to that struggle. Then come two sections on thought and reference, questions of intense contemporary interest. It is fascinating to see a philosopher of Berkeley's acumen and lucidity already struggling with them. Epistemology follows, with discussion from three different angles of that most distinctive of Berkeleian themes: his view that the best philosophy of thought and knowledge requires a metaphysics not of matter but of God. Perception gave Berkeley his start, and we turn to it next with essays on his view of its objects and its varieties. The collection closes with two scholarly papers. One offers a new view of Berkeley's Notebooks, buttressed by detailed tex tual support. The last paper, finally, on the reception of Berkeley's philoso phy in Germany, recalls the first, which compares the phenomenalisms of Leibniz and Berkeley. Ernest Sosa Brown University vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Newport conference had a substantial grant from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities. Brown University contributed ma terial and human resources. And the conference was hosted by St. George's School and Trinity Church in Newport. Thanks are owed to Ray mond Houghton, President of the IBS, to Maureen Lapan, and to the Soci ety of the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island a~d Providence Plantations, es pecially Mary Staley, for their enormous contribution to the success of the conference. My warm thanks as organizer and editor to Gale Alex and Eleanor Thurn for secretarial assistance; to Salvatore Fratantaro for editorial as sistance; to Constance Mui for preparing the indices; to Jesus Diaz for as sistance with the conference; to Suzanne' Bertrand for indispensable edito rial contributions; and to Matthew Kapstein for the bibliography, and for manifold editorial and scholarly help with every aspect of the book project. ix CONTRIBUTORS Robert M. Adams Phillip Cummins University of California, University of Iowa Los Angeles Iowa City, Iowa Los Angeles, California Daniel Garber Margaret Atherton The University of Chicago University of Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin A. David Kline Iowa State University of Michael R. Ayers Science and Technology Wadham College Ames, Iowa Oxford, Great Britain George S. Pappas Berti! Belfrage Ohio State University Villan Columbus, Ohio S-57020 Bodafors Sweden Ernest Sosa Brown University Martha Bolton Providence, Rhode Island Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Ian Tipton New Brunswick, New Jersey The University College of Wales Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales Wolfgang Breidert Universitat Karlsruhe Margaret Wilson Karlsruhe, Fed. Republic of Germany Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey Genevieve Brykman 70, rue du Javelot 75645 Paris 13, France xi ABBREVIATIONS The present volume follows John Foster and Howard Robinson, eds., Essays on Berkeley: a tercentennial celebration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), for most of the abbreviations here listed. Works The Works of George Berkeley Bishop of eloyne, ed. A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop, 9 vols. (Edinburgh: Thomas Nel son, 1948-57). References, except to the works listed be low, are by volume and page number. PC Philosophical Commentaries (Works, vol. i). References = by entry numbers (Notebook B entries 1-399; Note = book A entries from 400 onwards). NTV An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (Works, vol. i). References by section numbers. TVV Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained (Works, vol. i). References by section numbers. Principles The Principles of Human Knowledge, Part I (Works, ii). Referred to by section number. Principles, Intro. Introduction to The Principles of Human Knowledge (Works, ii). Referred to by section number. Dialogues Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (Works, ii). References are to pages numbers. Ale. Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher (Works, iii). Referred to by page number. xiii
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