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Definition: Berkeley, George from Philip's Encyclopedia

Irish philosopher and cleric. Drawing on the empiricism of John Locke, he argued that there is no existence independent of subjective perception (esse est percipi). For Berkeley, the apparently ordered physical world is the work of God. This view is often called subjective idealism.


Berkeley, George

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(bär'klē, bûr–), 1685–1753, Anglo-Irish philosopher and clergyman, b. Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he became a scholar and later a fellow there. Most of Berkeley's important work in philosophy was done in his younger years. His Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), and the famous Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (1713) are among his more important works. At considerable personal sacrifice he organized a movement to establish a college in the Bermudas to convert the indigenous peoples, going to Rhode Island in 1728 to wait for promised support. This support never came, and after three years he returned to England. He was made bishop of Cloyne in 1734. Berkeley in his subjective idealism went beyond Locke , who had argued that such qualities as color and taste arise in the mind while primary qualities of matter such as extension and weight have existence independent of the…
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Full text Article George Berkeley

From Great Thinkers A-Z
Bishop George Berkeley is widely regarded as a loony. This diagnosis of psychosis is in spite of his evident wit, wisdom and wile whilst writing on topics as diverse as the calculus, natural law, optics, politics, poverty and, somewhat incongruously, tar-water. Why then was Berkeley seen as having…
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Full text Article Berkeley, George

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Philosopher and mathematician, Berkeley stands with John LOCKE and David HUME as one of the seminal figures of British Empiricism. He also helped to lay the foundation for the psychology of perception. A metaphysical idealist, he argued that all reality is the product of mind, a position that led…
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George Berkeley (The Library of Congress)
Philosopher George Berkeley was born at Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, Ireland, on March 12, 1685. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, with a Bachelor of Arts in 1704 and was elected a fellow of the college in 1707. Three years after taking holy orders, he traveled to London, where he became…
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Full text Article Berkeley, George

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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Full text Article BERKELEY, GEORGE (1685-1753)

From The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment
George Berkeley was one of the great philosophers of the eighteenth century. Most famous for his defense of immaterialism— the view that reality consists only of minds and ideas—he was a talented writer with wide-ranging interests and competencies. In addition to his philosophical work, Berkeley…
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Full text Article Berkeley, George (1685–1753),

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Irish philosopher and bishop in the Anglican Church of Ireland, one of the three great British empiricists along with Locke and Hume. He developed novel and influential views on the visual perception of distance and size, and an idealist metaphysical system that he defended partly on the seemingly…
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Full text Article Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

From Encyclopedia of Philosophers on Religion
Berkeley’s father had come from England before settling in Ireland. He and his wife raised Berkeley with strong Protestant convictions in the predominantly Roman Catholic southeastern part of the country. After four years at Kilkenny College and another seven working toward B.A. and M.A. degrees at…
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Full text Article Berkeley, George (1685–1753).

From The Oxford Companion to British History
Philosopher and bishop. One of the most renowned philosophers of his day, Berkeley was born in Kilkenny of English descent. He became a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, but spent 1713–20 in London or on continental travel, becoming well acquainted with *Pope , *Swift , and Arbuthnot. In 1720 his…
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Irish idealist philosopher and Anglican Bishop of Cloyne (1734-52). His philosophical works, such as A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), argue that things in the material world only exist when perceived in the mind. I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not…
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Full text Article George Berkeley 1685–1753

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Irish philosopher and Church of Ireland bishop of Cloyne. On Berkeley: see byron , johnson , smith They are neither finite quantities, or quantities infinitely small, nor yet nothing. May we not call them the ghosts of departed quantities? on newton 's infinitesimals The Analyst (1734) sect. 35 [Tar…
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