Historical Figures Codexery

George Berkeley

Anglo-Irish philosopher and founder of immaterialism

George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher and clergyman who founded immaterialism, the theory that material substance does not exist.[1] He argued that familiar objects are ideas perceived by the mind and cannot exist without being perceived.[2] Berkeley remains arguably the most influential of Irish philosophers, and his ideas gained increased interest after World War II.[3]

Quick Facts

Church
Church of Ireland
Diocese
Cloyne
Term
1734–1753
Predecessor
Edward Synge
Successor
James Stopford
Ordination
1709 (as deacon); 1710 (as priest)
Consecration
18 January 1734
Born
12 March 1685

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Berkeley was born in 1685 near Kilkenny, Ireland, as the eldest son of William Berkeley.[4][5] His first major work, An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, was published in 1709 and discussed the limitations of human vision.[6] In 1710 he published A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, which argued that the physical world consists only of ideas.[7] He was ordained as a priest in 1710, though this led to a court case with the Archbishop of Dublin.[8]

Berkeley married Anne Forster on 1 August 1728 at St Mary le Strand, London.[9] He then traveled to America, where he bought a plantation in Rhode Island and purchased enslaved Africans to work on it.[10] While in America, he composed Alciphron, a work of Christian apologetics directed against free-thinkers.[11] At Kilkenny College and later Trinity College Dublin, Berkeley's education took place; in 1702 he became a Scholar, and by 1704 he had earned a BA.[12]

What the cited sources add

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Berkeley's philosophical notebooks from 1707 document his early evolution from a critical response to Descartes, Locke, and Newton.[11] The same source states that Berkeley's 1744 work Siris aimed to establish tar-water as a medical panacea and lead the mind toward contemplation of God.[11] The Stanford Encyclopedia also records that Berkeley's Siris sold more copies during his lifetime than any of his other books.[11] A University of St Andrew's biography reports that Berkeley's best-known mathematical contribution was his attack on the logical foundation of Newton's calculus.[13]

The Stanford Encyclopedia describes Berkeley's De Motu as a tract on the philosophical foundations of mechanics that articulated an instrumentalist approach to Newtonian dynamics.[14] The same source adds that Berkeley composed The Querist while bishop, laying out a proposal for an Irish national bank.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Watson, "Berkeley Is Pronounced Barclay", Berkeley Newsletter, 1993–1994, p. 1–3; "Berkeley" entry in Collins English Dictionary. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Popper, "A note on Berkeley as precursor of Mach", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1 May 1953, p. 26–36; Also published: Conjectures and Refutations, Volume I, "A note on Berkeley as precursor of Mach and Einstein", Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969.; jhollandtranslations.com George Berkeley (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Berkeley: critical and interpretive essays", University of Minnesota Press, 1982 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Stock's 'An Account of the Life of George Berkeley, D.D.'", maths.tcd.ie; "George Berkeley Biography, Philosophy, & Facts Britannica", Encyclopædia Britannica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Downing, "George Berkeley", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
  6. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Berkeley, "An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision", Jeremy Pepyat, 2004; Turbayne, "Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge: Critical Studies", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, September 1959, p. 24–33}} In this collection of essays, Turbayne's work comprised two papers that had bee (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Berkeley, George", University of St Andrew’s; "George Berkeley, Irish Philosopher and Anglican Bishop, Died", Today in Celtic History (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: O’Grady, "Berkeley, George", Dictionary of Irish Biography, October 2009 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "St Mary le Strand parish register", 1 August 1728 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "First Scholarship Fund", Yale, Slavery & Abolition; Humphreys, "What to do about George Berkeley, Trinity figurehead and slave owner?", The Irish Times; "Berkeley Name Dropped From Trinity College Library", Inside Higher Ed (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Downing, Lisa, "George Berkeley", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Retrieved 21 August 2013.. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
  12. Wikipedia, "George Berkeley" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Berkeley, George", University of St Andrew’s; "George Berkeley", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; "Berkeley, George", University of St Andrew’s; O’Grady, "Berkeley, George", Dictionary of Irish Biography, October 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  13. "Berkeley, George", University of St Andrew’s. facts only, no text reused. mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk
  14. Downing, "George Berkeley", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, January 2011. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article George Berkeley (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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