Berkeley and Irish PhilosophyA&C Black, 2005 M08 20 - 248 pages The first essay in David Berman's new collection examines the full range of Berkeley's achievement, looking not only at his classic works of 1709-1713, but also Alciphron (1732) and his final book, the enigmaic Siris (1744). Item two examines a key problem in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision (1709): why does the moon look larger on the horizon than in the meridian? The third item criticizes the view, still uncritically accepted by many, that Berkeley's attacks on materialism are levelled against Locke. Part 2 opens with Berman's two essays of 1982 - the first to show that Berkeley came from a rich and coherent Irish philosophical background. Next comes a discussion of the link between Berkeley and Francis Hutcheson, and particularly their answers to the Molyneux problem, which Berman takes to be the root problem of Irish philosophy. The fourth essay looks at the impact of the golden age Irish philosophy on eighteenth-century American philosophy, where, again, Berkeley has a central position. The last item examines Berkeley's influence on Samuel Beckett. Part 3 shows the many-sidedness of Berkeley's career, which is missed by those who concentrate exclusively on his work of 1709-1713. Each item here presents new material on Berkeley's life, or on his works and thought; most of these are new letters, not included in the Luce-Jessop edition of the Works of Berkeley. This section, therefore, can be seen a supplement to volumes 8 and 9 of the Works and also to Luce's Life of Berkeley. |
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A. A. Luce abstract Alciphron answer argued argument attack beauty Beckett Bennett Berke Berkeley's immaterialism Berkeley's letter Berkeley's philosophy Berman Bermuda Biographia Bishop Berkeley blind Browne Browne's Burke Burke's Catholic Cato's Letters Chapter Clayton Cloyne colours Counter-Enlightenment criticisms Deism Descartes doctrine Dodwell Dublin edition Edwards eidetic imager Emlyn Enlightenment Essay on Spirit existence extension Francis Hutcheson freethinkers freethought Galton George Berkeley God's Hobbes Hume Introduction Ireland Irish Anglicans Irish philosophy John John Toland Johnson keley King ley's Locke Lockean Malebranche material substance matter meaning mention mind Molesworth Molyneux problem nature objects originally published Oxford perceive physical position Principles religion repr representationalism Samuel Johnson secondary qualities sect sense sensible ideas Skelton suppose Swift Synge tar-water theological representationalism Theory of Vision things Thoemmes Thomas Thomas Emlyn thought Three Dialogues tion Toland Trenchard Trinity College veil of perception words writes
Popular passages
Page 9 - I find I can excite ideas in my mind at pleasure, and vary and shift the scene as oft as I think fit. It is no more than willing, and straightway this or that idea arises in my fancy; and by the same power it is obliterated and makes way for another.
Page 10 - I find indeed I have a faculty of imagining, or representing to myself the ideas of those particular things I have perceived, and of variously compounding and dividing them. I can imagine a man with two heads, or the upper parts of a man joined to the body of a horse. I can consider the hand, the eye, the nose, each by itself abstracted or separated from the rest of the body.