blog.kennypearce.net: George Berkeley Archives

Berkeley on the Phenomenology of Mathematics

Nor do I think [abstract ideas] are a whit more needfull for enlargment of Knowlege, than for Communication. For tho' it be a point much insisted on in the Schools, that all Knowlege is about Universals, yet I can by no means See the necessity of this Doctrine. It is acknowledg'd that nothing has a fairer title to the Name of Knowlege or Science than Geometry. Now I appeal to any mans thoughts, whether upon the entrance into that Study, the first thing to be done is to try to conceive a Circle that is neither great nor small, nor...
Continue reading "Berkeley on the Phenomenology of Mathematics"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Immanuel Kant , Philosophy , Philosophy of Math , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 10:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Making (Non)Sense of Apophatic Theology

Recently, I've been trying to sort out the historical context of Berkeley's remarks on the divine attributes—and particularly the doctrine of analogy—in Alciphron 4. As this text shows, early modern philosophers were much more knowledgeable about, and influenced by, medieval philosophy than is often assumed. So I've been reading up on medieval understandings of analogy and apophaticism. Unrelatedly, I've also been reading through Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief. This is a hugely influential book, and I'd read—and even taught—the crucial central portion of the book but (I must admit) this is my first time reading it cover to cover. In part...
Continue reading "Making (Non)Sense of Apophatic Theology"

Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Anthony Collins , Contemporary Thinkers , Divine Attributes , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Moses Maimonides , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Religious Language , Thomas Aquinas , William King
Posted by Kenny at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts

Religious and political historians of 17th/18th century Britain and Ireland are well aware of the long-running conflict between the 'latitudinarian' and 'high-church' factions in the Anglican Communion. However, many historians of philosophy are entirely unfamiliar with these terms. To historians of philosophy, religious debate in Britain and Ireland in this period is a conflict between Christians and deists/atheists, in which differences among Christians are either entirely invisible or of secondary importance. This is unfortunate, first, because this internal Anglican conflict can shed light on some familiar philosophical texts and debates and, second, because there is a lot of interesting philosophy...
Continue reading "Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts"

Topic(s): Authoritativeness , Authority , Epistemology , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Mary Astell , Peter Browne , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits

It is pretty widely accepted, among those scholars who have considered the matter, that Berkeley endorses a univocal account of theological language. That is, Berkeley holds—contrary to traditional philosophical theology—that the word 'wise' is applied to God and to Socrates in the same sense, although with an infinite difference of degree. Philosophers who hold such a view are often said to anthropomorphize God (see, e.g., O'Higgins). However, comparing Berkeley's account with the prior tradition, it would be more accurate to say that Berkeley divinizes the human being than that he anthropomorphizes God. The strongest indication in this direction is found...
Continue reading "Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits"

Topic(s): Divine Attributes , Divine Simplicity , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Religious Language
Posted by Kenny at 11:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words

At the beginning of the final (and by far the longest) chapter of his 1733 Divine Analogy, Peter Browne reports that "JUST as this Treatise was finished and sent away to the Press, I was very accidentaly surprised with a threatning Appearance of a powerful Attack upon the Doctrine of Divine Analogy, from an anonymous Author under the Disguise of a Minute Philosopher" (p. 374). The reference is, of course, to Berkeley's 1732 Alciphron: or, the Minute Philosopher. Browne proceeds to offer a lengthy critique of the account of religious language found in Berkeley's fourth and seventh dialogues. Browne correctly...
Continue reading "Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Toland , Peter Browne , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Religious Language
Posted by Kenny at 6:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Theory of Language"

I've posted a new draft to my writings page, "Berkeley's Theory of Language". This is an invited contribution to The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley, edited by Samuel Rickless. The abstract is as follows: In the Introduction to the Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley attacks the “received opinion that language has no other end but the communicating our ideas, and that every significant name stands for an idea” (PHK, Intro §19). How far does Berkeley go in rejecting this ‘received opinion’? Does he offer a general theory of language to replace it? If so, what is the nature...
Continue reading ""Berkeley's Theory of Language""

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 3:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Berkeley's Immaterialism

I rather think we have that idea [of space] before we have any of extension in general, or are capable of abstracting: Nor does the mind frame it to itself; it is an idea early obtruded upon by the senses, and unavoidably perceived by it, as something without itself. This is all the proof we have, that matter is any thing really existing without the mind; and if the translator [Edmund Law, translator of William King's Essay on the Origin of Evil] will not admit of this evidence in behalf of space, but require some other proof, that it is...
Continue reading "Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Berkeley's Immaterialism"

Topic(s): Catharine Trotter Cockburn , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 6:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Philosophy and Trust in the Senses, from Montaigne to Berkeley

I want to begin this post with a longer sequence of quotations than is usual. The reason is that simply juxtaposing the quotations goes a long way toward telling the story I want to tell. Here, then, is a sequence of comments on philosophy and trust in the senses, ranging in date from 1580 to 1713: We want to find out by reason whether fire is hot, whether snow is white, whether anything within our knowledge is hard or soft. There are ancient stories of the replies made to the man who doubted whether heat exists—they told him to jump...
Continue reading "Philosophy and Trust in the Senses, from Montaigne to Berkeley"

Topic(s): Epistemology , Galileo Galilei , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Michel de Montaigne , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 9:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction on Google Arts and Culture

A digital exhibition on Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction is now live on Google Arts and Culture. The exhibition provides an introduction to Berkeley's life and his connection to Trinity College, followed by a brief overview of some of the most interesting portions of the manuscript. I thank the TCD library staff (especially Greg Sheaf) for a great deal of assistance in curating this exhibition.
Continue reading "Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction on Google Arts and Culture"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers
Posted by Kenny at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Lokayata

Berkeley famously argues that "what is said of the absolute existence of unthinking things without any relation to their being perceived ... [is] perfectly unintelligible. Their esse is percipi, nor is it possible they should have any existence, out of the minds or thinking things which perceive them" (Principles, sect. 3). He aims to demonstrate this principle, he says, "In opposition to sceptics and atheists" (Three Dialogues, subtitle). As Berkeley saw it, human knowledge and traditional religion were under attack from 'freethinkers' and the root of this attack was the doctrine that real physical things must be something beyond or...
Continue reading "Berkeley and Lokayata"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Lokayata School , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 2:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy"

I have posted a new draft, "Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy," to my writings page. Abstract: Malebranche argues that ideas are representative beings existing in God. He defends this thesis by an inference to the best explanation of human perception. It is well-known that Malebranche's theory of vision in God was forcefully rejected by philosophers such as Arnauld, Locke, and Berkeley. However, the notion that ideas exist in God was not the only controversial aspect of Malebranche's approach. Another controversy centered around Malebranche's view that ideas are to be understood as posits in an explanatory theory. Opponents of...
Continue reading ""Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy""

Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 5:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Toland on the Homoousion

EUPHRANOR. There is, if I mistake not, a practical faith, or assent, which sheweth itself in the will and actions of a man, although his understanding may not be furnished with those abstract, precise, distinct ideas, which, whatever a philosopher may pretend, are acknowledged to be above the talents of common men; among whom, nevertheless, may be found, even according to your own concession, many instances of such practical faith, in other matters which do not concern religion. What should hinder, therefore, but that doctrines relating to heavenly mysteries might be taught, in this saving sense, to vulgar minds, which...
Continue reading "Berkeley and Toland on the Homoousion"

Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Deism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Toland , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Religious Language , The Church
Posted by Kenny at 1:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

George Berkeley and the Power of Words

Today the OUP Author Blog features a post by me highlighting one of the main lines of argument from my book, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. The title is, "George Berkeley and the Power of Words."
Continue reading "George Berkeley and the Power of Words"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Newton and Berkeley on the Scope of Natural Philosophy

In the first two editions of the Principia, Newton makes two pronouncements about the scope of natural philosophy that appear to be in tension with one another. In the first (1687) edition Preface to the Reader, Newton writes, "the basic problem of [natural] philosophy seems to be to discover the forces of nature from the phenomena of motions and then to demonstrate the other phenomena from these forces" (Janiak 60). In the famous General Scholium added to the second (1713) edition, Newton writes, "to treat of God from the phenomena is certainly a part of natural philosophy" (Janiak 113). We...
Continue reading "Newton and Berkeley on the Scope of Natural Philosophy"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Isaac Newton , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science
Posted by Kenny at 2:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Idealism and Christian Theology: Concluding Thoughts and Table of Posts

Having finished commenting on every chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology, allow me here to offer some concluding thoughts on the book and its aims and scope. First, some comments regarding scope. The title 'idealism and Christian theology' allows for a very wide scope. In the design of a volume like this, a judgment must be made about how broadly or narrowly the title is to be interpreted. Here, the title bears a relatively narrow interpretation in two respects, only one of which is explicit in the introduction. The explicit restriction of scope is that the volume considers only Berkeleian...
Continue reading "Idealism and Christian Theology: Concluding Thoughts and Table of Posts"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Airaksinen on Berkeley's Theological Ethics

The 11th and final chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Idealistic Ethics and Berkeley's Good God" by Timo Airaksinen. This is a rich, complex, and careful treatment of Berkeley's ethical thought. It is the only essay in the volume that pays careful attention to Berkeley's own theological commitments. Further, by specific attention to the theological context of Berkeley's ethical thought Airaksinen is able to show that Berkeley's thought in this area is richer and more complex than philosophers have often supposed. The discussion is focused around Berkeley's Alciphron. Surprisingly little attention is paid to Passive Obedience, though good use...
Continue reading "Airaksinen on Berkeley's Theological Ethics"

Topic(s): Divine Command Theory , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Philosophy , Theology , Timo Airaksinen , Utilitarianism
Posted by Kenny at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Yandell on Berkeley and Creation

The fourth chapter of Idealism and Christian Theology is "Berkeley, Realism, Idealism, and Creation" by Keith Yandell. This is an interesting paper on Berkeley which, unless I missed something, did not turn out to be about Christian theology at all. I say purposely that it did not turn out to be about Christian theology, because it sounds at the beginning as if it is going to be. Yandell begins by noting that Berkeley's position is rare among Christian thinkers (p. 73), and discussing a particular threat to Christianity from those who take the creation of matter to be impossible (p....
Continue reading "Yandell on Berkeley and Creation"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Joshua Farris , Keith Yandell , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Recent and Forthcoming Publications and Lecture

There's been a lot of exciting stuff going on recently! Here are a few things: The official UK release of Language and Structure was yesterday! This means that if you are in Europe and ordered direct from OUP, your copy should be on the way. Also, it means that e-book versions are now available from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Google, and Barnes and Noble. The paper book will be available in the rest of the world in May. "How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree" will appear in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. "Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language"...
Continue reading "Recent and Forthcoming Publications and Lecture"

Topic(s): Deism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , My Life , The Church
Posted by Kenny at 8:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wainwright on Berkeley and Edwards

The second essay in Idealism and Christian Theology is "Berkeley, Edwards, Idealism, and the Knowledge of God" by William J. Wainwright. The aim of this article is to explore and explain similarities between Berkeley and Edwards in terms of the religious and cultural context in which they wrote, particularly the threat of deism and freethinking to these (relatively) traditional religious thinkers. This is an extremely interesting project, and it is for the most part well-executed, though the brevity of a single paper necessitates glossing over certain details, leaving some points underdeveloped, and so forth. Wainwright's central contention, I take it,...
Continue reading "Wainwright on Berkeley and Edwards"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Theology , William Wainwright
Posted by Kenny at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Spiegel on Berkeley and Orthodoxy

The first paper in Idealism and Christian Theology is James Spiegel's "The Theological Orthodoxy of Berkeley's Immaterialism." This piece was originally published in Faith and Philosophy in 1996, though I must confess that I had not read it before today. I found the essay rather odd, partly because I have some confusion about the nature of its project. Contrary to my expectations, it does not really address any of the questions I outlined in my last post. On the whole, I think the essay makes problematic unexamined assumptions about Berkeley's religion, and it relies on a controversial characterization of Berkeley's...
Continue reading "Spiegel on Berkeley and Orthodoxy"

Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Bible , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , James Spiegel , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Protestantism , Scripture and Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Idealism and Christian Theology: Introduction

I have been asked to review Joshua Farris and Mark Hamilton's Idealism and Christian Theology for Faith and Philosophy. In accord with a previous practice I have found useful, I will be blogging through the book, one post per chapter, in preparation to write the review. This post will be not so much a discussion of the book's introduction as my own way of framing and approaching the issues in the book. The fundamental paradox of theological anthropology in the Abrahamic tradition is the understanding of the human being as the breath of God dwelling in the dust of the...
Continue reading "Idealism and Christian Theology: Introduction"

Topic(s): Christology , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Jonathan Edwards , Joshua Farris , Mark Hamilton , Materialism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Eucharist , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (5)

Berkeley and Hobbes

From a certain point of view (or perhaps several points of view), one might think that no two early modern philosophers are more opposed than Berkeley and Hobbes. True, both are empiricists, and the disagreement between rationalists and empiricists is often treated as the 'main event' of early modern philosophy. However, a comparison between Berkeley and Hobbes might well be regarded as a vivid and compelling illustration of the failings of the traditional rationalist-empiricist narrative. Note, for starters, that the ontologies of Berkeley and Hobbes are disjoint: Hobbes believes only in material substances, Berkeley believes only in spiritual (immaterial) substances....
Continue reading "Berkeley and Hobbes"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 2:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction Digitized

This morning the digitization team at the Trinity College Library provided me with scans of the manuscript version of the Introduction to Berkeley's Principles. The manuscript is significantly longer than the published version and contains some important material, as I discuss at some length in my book. However, it has been widely known for some time that the transcription of the manuscript in the Luce and Jessop edition of Berkeley's Works is unreliable. The excellent diplomatic edition prepared by Bertil Belfrage was printed in a run of only 500 copies in 1987, and hence is not widely available. In the coming months, I will be working to prepare a permanent online home for the manuscript. In the meantime, I am pleased to make it available here.
Continue reading "Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction Digitized"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers
Posted by Kenny at 2:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Language and Structure Available for Pre-Order!

I am most pleased to announce that Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World is now available for pre-order through Amazon UK or direct from Oxford University Press! It has not yet appeared on the US Amazon site. UK release is scheduled for March; US release for May. In addition to the information available on the Amazon and OUP sites, a detailed abstract can be found here.
Continue reading "Language and Structure Available for Pre-Order!"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 8:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language"

Completing my summer research goals (only slightly late!), I've posted another new draft to my writings page, "Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language". The paper argues that when Berkeley's language of nature theory is interpreted in light of his own philosophy of language it produces a solution to the notorious problem of the existence of objects presently unperceived by humans.
Continue reading ""Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language""

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed"

I've posted a new draft, "What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed," to my writings page. This is actually a rewrite of a much older paper; the original idea pre-dates my dissertation. In it, I argue (among other things) that Kant's fundamental complaint against Berkeley is that Berkeley's empiricism leaves him with cognitive resources too sparse for the construction of a genuine world. In particular, Kant targets Berkeley's rejection of the application of the concept of substance to perceived objects. Of course, in Language and Structure I argue that Berkeley is aware of these sorts of problems and develops...
Continue reading ""What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed""

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Immanuel Kant , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 6:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Two Definitions of 'Empiricism'

In traditional tellings of the history of early modern philosophy, the school of British empiricists - the Locke-Berkeley-Hume triumvirate - is seen as according foundational status to the Aristotelian principle, "nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses." This is, of course, given new formulations in terms of the modern 'Way of Ideas'. Their philosophical systems, so the story goes, are built on this foundation. However, there is another meaning of 'empiricism' that is more common in the early modern period. This notion goes back to the ancient 'empirics,' a school of physicians who eschewed theorizing in...
Continue reading "Two Definitions of 'Empiricism'"

Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , Francis Bacon , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Robert Boyle , Thomas Hobbes , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Trinity College Dublin

I am most pleased to announce that, beginning in the fall, I will be Ussher Assistant Professor in Berkeley Studies (Early Modern Philosophy) at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. I do believe I will be the only professor of Berkeley Studies in the world (fittingly at Trinity: Berkeley's alma mater.
Continue reading "Trinity College Dublin"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , My Life
Posted by Kenny at 10:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Language and Structure to be Published by OUP

I am most pleased to announce that I today received a contract from Oxford University Press for my monograph, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. I've agreed to deliver the final version by mid-October (at the latest), so I am hopeful that the book will appear sometime in 2017. A detailed abstract is available here.
Continue reading "Language and Structure to be Published by OUP"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 6:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Deism, Anthropomorphism, and Religion

I'm just beginning to think about a reference article on deism that I'm writing for the Ian Ramsey Centre's Special Divine Action Project and it has me thinking about a rather curious phenomenon in early modern philosophy and religion: the complex interplay between deism and theological anthropomorphism. Presently, the term 'deism' is associated with the 'absent watchmaker' picture of God: a highly anthropomorphic conception of a divine engineer whose prime concern is the elegant mechanical design of the universe rather than moral qualities. This is a conception shaped by 18th century Anglophone deists. However, in his large and extremely carefully...
Continue reading "Deism, Anthropomorphism, and Religion"

Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , Deism , Deism and Freethinking , Divine Attributes , Divine Revelation , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Jonathan Israel , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , The Church , Theology , William King
Posted by Kenny at 4:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Between Incredulity and Superstition

A little essay on pedagogy I wrote is going out in the upcoming Lilly Network Communique. The essay takes off from the Berkeley quote that's been in the header of this blog for some time, so I thought I'd make it available here too. Between Incredulity and Superstition A Pedagogy of Uncertainty "Religion," George Berkeley once remarked, "is the virtuous mean between incredulity and superstition"(Alciphron, §5.6). In the context of Berkeley's Alciphron, this is little more than a throwaway line, but to me it suggests a promising account of an important intellectual virtue. I believe that growth in this virtue...
Continue reading "Between Incredulity and Superstition"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Peter Browne , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 4:38 PM

Understanding Sentences: Port-Royal, Locke, and Berkeley

According to the Port-Royal Logic, "words are distinct and articulated sounds that people have made into signs to indicate what takes place in the mind" (Buroker 74). Similarly, according to Locke, the use of language requires that one ``be able to use [articulate] Sounds, as Signs of internal Conceptions; and to make them stand as marks for the Ideas within his own Mind, whereby they might be made known to others, and the Thoughts of Men's Minds be conveyed from one to another" (EHU 3.1.2). Passages like these support Berkeley's interpretation of his predecessors as holding that, in the proper...
Continue reading "Understanding Sentences: Port-Royal, Locke, and Berkeley"

Topic(s): Antoine Arnauld , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Jennifer Smalligan Marušić , John Locke , Mental Representation , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 1:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues"

I have posted a new draft to my writings page, "Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues". The final version of the paper is expected to appear in Berkeley's Three Dialogues: New Essays, ed. Stefan Storrie (Oxford University Press). In the meantime, comments are welcome.
Continue reading ""Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues""

Topic(s): Deism and Freethinking , Existence of God , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , Religious Language , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:17 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

"How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree"

I have posted a new draft, "How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree" to my writings page. As always, comments and criticisms are welcome.
Continue reading ""How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree""

Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI

My paper "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" has now (finally!) appeared in Journal of the History of Ideas! In accord with the journal's self-archival policy, I have removed the online preprint I had posted; apologies to those without subscriptions. I will put the official version of the paper up after the one year embargo has expired.
Continue reading ""Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI"

Topic(s): Epistemology , Faith , George Berkeley , John Locke , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 7:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Hudson on Skeptical Theism and Divine Deception

The forthcoming Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion is full of interesting stuff! So far, I specially recommend Bishop and Perszyk on alternative conceptions of God and Dougherty and Pruss on apparently unjustified evils as 'anomalies' (in the philosophy of science sense). I have not yet read the last four articles. Here, I want to comment on Hud Hudson's "The Father of Lies?" (This post got longer than I intended, so I've added sub-headings. If you get bored in the middle, please skip to the end. I've also bolded important parts to make for easier skimming.) Hudson's Argument Hudson's central...
Continue reading "Hudson on Skeptical Theism and Divine Deception"

Topic(s): Alexander R. Pruss , Divine Revelation , Epistemology , Faith , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Hud Hudson , John Locke , Lara Buchak , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Skeptical Theism , The Problem of Evil
Posted by Kenny at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World (Doctoral Dissertation)

The final draft of my doctoral dissertation, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World is now complete, and available here. The defense is scheduled for March 21.
Continue reading "Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World (Doctoral Dissertation)"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language
Posted by Kenny at 5:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Second-Order Anti-Skepticism

Consider the following parallel passages from Berkeley's Principles and Dialogues: so long as men thought that real things subsisted without the mind, and that their knowledge was only so far forth real as it was conformable to real things, it follows, they could not be certain that they had any real knowledge at all. For how can it be known that the things which are perceived, are conformable to those which are not perceived or exist without the mind? (PHK sect. 86) It is your opinion, the ideas we perceive by our senses are not real things but images or...
Continue reading "Berkeley's Second-Order Anti-Skepticism"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Epistemology , Externalism about Justification , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , James Van Cleve , Philosophy , Skepticism , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 6:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'"

I've posted a new draft to my (recently reorganized) writings page, "Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'." This paper defends, in a relatively short space, some of the central conclusions which I defend at much greater length in my dissertation, Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World. Here is the abstract of the paper: To the great puzzlement of his readers, Berkeley begins by arguing that nothing exists other than minds and ideas, but concludes by claiming to have defended the existence of bodies. How can Berkeley's idealism amount to such a defense? I introduce resources from...
Continue reading ""Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'""

Topic(s): Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Science
Posted by Kenny at 10:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Vision : Touch :: Written Words : Spoken Words?

In a very interesting, if rather bizarre, paper called "Berkeley's Metaphysical Grammar," Colin Turbayne develops an interpretation of Berkeley's 'language of nature' theory which takes extremely seriously Berkeley's remark, in the New Theory of Vision, "that visible figures represent tangible figures much after the same manner that written words do sounds" (sect. 143). The relation of vision to touch is, in other words, the same as the relation of written English to spoken English. A particular visible idea signifies a particular tangible idea not in the way a word signifies its referent, but rather in the way a written word...
Continue reading "Vision : Touch :: Written Words : Spoken Words?"

Topic(s): Colin Turbayne , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: D. Z. Phillips on the Christian 'Image'

Consider the following example. There is a gentleman who appears advertising cigars on television. No sooner does this immaculate man light up cigars than women come from all quarters to gather round him. We can imagine people reacting in certain moods by saying, 'What a man!' Here, 'man' is clearly not a purely descriptive term. They are extolling, praising, wondering. A cluster of images influence their attitude: success, flair, charm, panache, the great seducer, etc., etc. At the heart of Christianity is a very different event. It is that of a torn body on a cross. Here, too, it was...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: D. Z. Phillips on the Christian 'Image'"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , D. Z. Phillips , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Religious Language
Posted by Kenny at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley, Analogy, Matter, and God

On May 15, 1709 William King, archbishop of Dublin, preached a famous sermon (it was really more of a lecture in philosophical theology with a Scripture quotation at the beginning, but this was not too unusual in the Anglican Communion at the time) entitled "Divine Predestination and Fore-knowledg, consistent with the Freedom of Man's Will." The sermon was published shortly thereafter in both Dublin and London and is therefore now available on Google books. (I have written about King before.) King considers three atheistic arguments: the argument from the inconsistency of divine foreknowledge with human freedom, the argument from the...
Continue reading "Berkeley, Analogy, Matter, and God"

Topic(s): Anthony Collins , Divine Attributes , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophical Theology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Religious Language , William King
Posted by Kenny at 4:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

A Hypothesis about the History of the Concept of Voluntariness

In Aristotelian physics, natural objects are characterized by their teleology, i.e. their tending toward certain ends. According to St. Thomas, what makes an event a voluntary action is that the subject of the event has knowledge of the end toward which the action is directed. Post-Galileo, physics is not about teleology in this way. Instead, physics is about laws, rules according to which events unfold. Accordingly, many early modern philosophers hold that a voluntary action is an event which unfolds according to a rule which has been adopted by the subject of the event. The clearest statement of this idea...
Continue reading "A Hypothesis about the History of the Concept of Voluntariness"

Topic(s): Action Theory , G. W. Leibniz , Galileo Galilei , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Immanuel Kant , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Samuel Clarke , Thomas Aquinas , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Linguistic Argument for Immaterialism

I think Berkeley would endorse the following argument: The rules governing a bit of language cannot tell agents to perform or refrain from actions in certain circumstances unless the agents can recognize the obtaining or not obtaining of those circumstances prior to the introduction of that bit of language. A word refers to an object only if the rules governing that word tell the agent to behave differently with respect to the use of that word depending on whether that object is present. (E.g. a necessary condition of 'rabbit' referring to rabbits is that the rules governing 'rabbit' specify that...
Continue reading "A Linguistic Argument for Immaterialism"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , W.V.O. Quine
Posted by Kenny at 6:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

"Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion"

I have posted a new paper, "Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion," which is my contribution to The Continuum Companion to Berkeley, ed. Richard Brook and Bertil Belfrage. This is an early draft, so comments and suggestions are welcome.
Continue reading ""Berkeley's Philosophy of Religion""

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 2:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rule Utilitarianism and Divine Command Theory in Berkeley's Passive Obedience

Berkeley's 1712 Passive Obedience is the closest thing to a systematic work of moral theory he ever wrote, and it isn't very close. The overarching argument can be paraphrased as follows: We have a negative moral duty of passive obedience to government. No negative moral duty admits of any exceptions - i.e. we are morally obligated to fulfill our negative duty in absolutely all cases. Therefore, We are morally obligated passively to obey the government in all cases. The work is concerned primarily with the defense of (1) and (2). (A few terminological clarifications. A negative duty is just a...
Continue reading "Rule Utilitarianism and Divine Command Theory in Berkeley's Passive Obedience"

Topic(s): Divine Command Theory , Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Utilitarianism
Posted by Kenny at 6:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

"Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI

My paper, "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" has been accepted to Journal of the History of Ideas. This is a direct descendent of the paper I presented at the International Berkeley Conference in Zurich last summer. The paper examines Berkeley's relationship to Locke's conservative religious critics, with focus on Edward Stillingfleet, John Sergeant, and Peter Browne, and argues that, on the questions about faith and reason which exercised these critics, Berkeley self-consciously and intentionally sides with Locke. In accordance with the journal's self-archiving policy, I have made my final draft of the paper available here.
Continue reading ""Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI"

Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , Faith , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , John Sergeant , John Toland , Peter Browne , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

On the Controversy Surrounding Berkeley's Ordination

In George Berkeley: Idealism and the Man, David Berman amasses considerable circumstantial evidence to the effect that Berkeley's movement away from Locke's theory of language may have been touched off by an in-person encounter with Archbishop William King and Provost Peter Browne (later Bishop of Cork and Ross) at a meeting of the Dublin Philosophical Society, November 19, 1707, where Berkeley read a brief paper entitle 'Of Infinities' (included in Luce and Jessop, volume 4; see Berman 11-20). I think Berman's overall picture is quite likely correct. In fact, in a paper called "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" which I am...
Continue reading "On the Controversy Surrounding Berkeley's Ordination"

Topic(s): Anglican Communion , Contemporary Thinkers , David Berman , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Peter Browne , Protestantism , The Church , William King
Posted by Kenny at 10:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Dropping My Tagline

For several years, this blog has been labeled with the tagline "The Evangelical libertarian philosopher." For some time now, I've been dissatisfied with this label, both as a description of my views and as a description of what this blog is about. I've hesitated to drop it primarily because I think that blogs of non-famous people, such as myself, should have some kind of descriptive name or tagline rather than just the author's name, and I couldn't think of another short, catchy, descriptive phrase that would nicely fill that bit of screen space. (I toyed with: "Berkeley's metaphysics, Nozick's politics,...
Continue reading "Dropping My Tagline"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Environmental Policy , Evangelicalism , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Libertarianism , Philosophy , Political Philosophy , Politics , Protestantism , Robert Nozick , The Church , The Web , Theology , This Web-Site
Posted by Kenny at 6:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Would Berkeley Endorse the Deflationary Theory of Truth?

In several place, most notably Alciphron 7, Berkeley seems to think that the meanings of many, if not all, terms are given by the rules for correctly applying them. He doesn't seem to mean the conditions under which they are true. Rather, he seems to mean the rules actual speakers apply in deciding to use the word. We're not talking about mere disquotation; we have to give conditions that speakers can actually use when deciding whether to utter sentences. So, to use one of Berkeley's favorite examples, the meaning of the symbol 'i' in algebra is given by the formula...
Continue reading "Would Berkeley Endorse the Deflationary Theory of Truth?"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Truth
Posted by Kenny at 6:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Motivational Internalism

Motivational internalism is a view about moral language or evaluative language in general and its relation to motivation. According to motivational internalism, if someone says 'x is good' but is not in the least motivated to pursue x, then that person is either insincere or not a competent user of the language. This is not supposed to be a fact about human psychology (that all humans pursue the good), but rather a claim about how the word 'good' works: something good is something which is to be pursued, so if you call something 'good' without taking it to be something...
Continue reading "Berkeley and Motivational Internalism"

Topic(s): Ethics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-ethics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Pragmatics
Posted by Kenny at 11:05 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's 'Master Argument' and the Theory of Mental Representation

I apologize for the very light posting; I have been busy stressing about my upcoming qualifying exam. But I thought I would break my silence today for some thoughts about (as usual) Berkeley. The following passage from Berkeley's Dialogues (L&J p. 200) is rather notorious: Phil. ... I am content to put the whole [debate] upon this issue. If you can conceive it possible for any mixture or combination of qualities, or any sensible object whatever, to exist without the mind, then I will grant it actually to be so. Hyl. If it comes to that, the point will soon...
Continue reading "Berkeley's 'Master Argument' and the Theory of Mental Representation"

Topic(s): Conceivability , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Kenneth P. Winkler , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley on Miracles and Transubstantiation

It was the custom among 17th and 18th century English philosophers to take as many potshots at the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation as possible. Sometimes it almost seems that a desideratum for a theory of metaphysics is that it should be inconsistent with that doctrine. This desideratum is, of course, easily satisfied: most theories of metaphysics are inconsistent with transubstantiation. All versions of the doctrine require that it be metaphysically possible for flesh to exist under the 'species' of bread, and a conservative interpretation of the doctrine popular in the early modern period further required that numerically the same...
Continue reading "Berkeley on Miracles and Transubstantiation"

Topic(s): Anglican Communion , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 12:36 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Locke and Berkeley on Cartesian Skepticism

Descartes's First Meditation is one of the most striking texts in the history of philosophy. As anyone who has taught the text can attest, students are immediately gripped by the problem, and often despair of a way out. John Locke was evidently not such a student, for he responds to these doubts primarily with ridicule: If any one say, a Dream may do the same thing [as sense perception], and all these Ideas may be produced in us, without any external Objects, he may please to dream that I make him this Answer, 1. That 'tis no great matter, whether...
Continue reading "Locke and Berkeley on Cartesian Skepticism"

Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 6:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley, Commonsense, and Surprising Discoveries

Suppose (as happens often) that scientists, or philosophers, or explorers, or whoever, make some sort of surprising discovery, one that appears to be at odds with our commonsense view of the world. How should we react? It seems that there are three possible courses: either one rejects commonsense, or one rejects the alleged discovery, or one attempts to revise and/or reinterpret things to synthesize the two perspectives. An example: periodically results come out in neuroscience which purport to show that some brain event, of which the subject is unconscious, occurs significantly before a subject makes a supposedly free conscious choice,...
Continue reading "Berkeley, Commonsense, and Surprising Discoveries"

Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Free Will , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

A Short Story About Berkeley's Theory of Vision

On the plane back from Zurich last week I read a very interesting story, "He Who Shapes," by Roger Zelazny. This work won the Nebula for best novella in 1965. The story centers around essentially the same piece of technology depicted in the recent movie Inception: a device that allows two people to share a dream, with one of them, the 'shaper', in control of the dream world. However, unlike Inception, in which the technology is used primarily for corporate espionage, in "He Who Shapes" the device is used for psychotherapy. This would be interesting enough, but it gets better:...
Continue reading "A Short Story About Berkeley's Theory of Vision"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Science-Fiction , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What Version of Locke's Essay Did Berkeley Read?

Locke's Essay went through several revisions in the author's lifetime, some of them quite substantive philosophically. The first edition was 1689, Locke died in 1704 and the posthumous fifth edition appeared in 1706. Locke seems to have had at least some hand in the revisions made between editions 4 and 5. Because some of the changes are substantive, I've sometimes wondered what version of the Essay Berkeley was working from. We know that it was required reading when Berkeley was studying for his BA at Trinity between 1700 and 1704. Today I was reading Berman's George Berkeley: Idealism and the...
Continue reading "What Version of Locke's Essay Did Berkeley Read?"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Berman , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

2011 International Berkeley Conference

The program for the 2011 International Berkeley Conference, to be held in Zurich a few weeks from now, is now up. I'll be presenting a paper called "Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology," and there are a number of other interesting talks on the schedule from several well-known and less well-known Berkeley scholars. The organizers solicited abstracts from the speakers for the web-site, so I'm sure those will appear shortly.
Continue reading "2011 International Berkeley Conference"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 3:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Miracles and Competence

I'm currently thinking about miracles and laws of nature, because I am working on revising this paper on the subject. Also on my mind is a paper of mine called "Divine Language, Unperceived Objects, and Berkeley's Response to Skepticism" which I will be presenting at the International Berkeley Society group session at the Eastern APA in December. It occurred to me that these two subjects of thought interact in an interesting way. In the Berkeley paper, I argue that we should take quite seriously Berkeley's claim that the laws of nature form the grammar of a language (PHK 108-110), and...
Continue reading "Miracles and Competence"

Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Laws of Nature , Metaphysics , Miracles , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 9:46 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Stillingfleet

I'm increasingly convinced that the debate between Locke and Stillingfleet is important background to Berkeley. Berkeley, like Stillingfleet, thinks that Locke's philosophy leads to 'Socinian scruples' (PHK 95). Furthermore, even in the early works, Berkeley seems to be attacking the 'free-thinkers' (DHP, Pref.), but the only writer he quotes is Locke. This was the behavior Locke complained about in Stillingfleet. Stillingfleet was attacking 'the gentlemen of the new way of reasoning', who, according to Stillingfleet, denied the Trinity (the main target was John Toland), but only Locke is ever quoted. In addition to the fact that the Locke-Stillingfleet correspondence was...
Continue reading "Berkeley and Stillingfleet"

Topic(s): Edward Stillingfleet , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , John Toland , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (1)

Phenomenalisms, De Re and De Dicto

'Phenomenalism' is the name given to Berkeley's doctrine that the being (existence) of material objects consists in their being perceived (their esse is percipi - PHK 3). This formula is, however, several ways ambiguous. Here I just want to point out one of them. (I have been thinking about these issues in connection with a paper I am writing on the question of whether Leibniz was a phenomenalist, and, if so, of what sort.) The ambiguity I am concerned with here is a de re/de dicto ambiguity. De re is Latin for 'concerning the thing', and de dicto is Latin...
Continue reading "Phenomenalisms, De Re and De Dicto"

Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 1:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Confuting and Convincing

I think that as the proper end of our conference ought to be supposed the discovery and defence of truth, so truth may be justified, not only by persuading its adversaries, but, where that cannot be done, by shewing them to be unreasonable. Arguments, therefore, which carry light have their effect, even against an opponent who shuts his eyes, because they shew him to be obstinate and prejudiced. (Berkeley, Alciphron 4.2) This thought comes back at the end of the book, where Dion observes, "how unaccountable it [is] that men so easy to confute should yet be so difficult to...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Confuting and Convincing"

Topic(s): Dialectic , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 9:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley and Leibniz Should be Friends

In his 1733 Theory of Vision Vindicated, commenting on the prevalence of the deist and free-thinking movements in England and Ireland, and justifying his association of these views with outright atheism, Berkeley writes: That atheistical principles have taken deeper root, and are farther spread than most people are apt to imagine, will be plain to whoever considers that pantheism, materialism, fatalism are nothing but atheism a little disguised; that the notions of Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibnitz [sic], and Bayle are relished and applauded; that as they who deny the freedom and immortality of the soul in effect deny its being, even...
Continue reading "Berkeley and Leibniz Should be Friends"

Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , Free Will , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Grace/Predestination , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philipp van Limborch , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Pierre Bayle , Theology , Thomas Hobbes , Vere Chappell
Posted by Kenny at 2:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Nature of the Visible Space in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision

One of the main aims of Berkeley's Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision is to argue that the application of spatial vocabulary ('far', 'near', 'big', 'small', 'right', 'left', etc.) to how things look ("visible objects") is derived from the primary meaning of that vocabulary as applying to how things feel ("tangible objects"). A big object is one you can't fit your arms around. An object looks big when the way it looks makes you think that you probably wouldn't be able to fit your arms around it. It is only by experience that we learn that objects we can't...
Continue reading "The Nature of the Visible Space in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception , William James
Posted by Kenny at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What is the Problem with Empiricism, Realism, and the Way of Ideas?

After discussing my last post offline with Lewis yesterday, I wanted to clarify this claim: "The argument points to serious problems with the combination of empiricism, realism, and the 'way of ideas.'" The problems I have in mind are difficulties with being justified in believing in, or perhaps even capable of expressing, realism. That is, there are certain views that seem natural if one accepts empiricism and the way of ideas which lead to the denial of realism. Here is, I think, the best example. Empiricism is an explanatory program for philosophy of mind which systematically favors explanations of the...
Continue reading "What is the Problem with Empiricism, Realism, and the Way of Ideas?"

Topic(s): Empiricism , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception , The Way of Ideas
Posted by Kenny at 12:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Can Immediate Perception Save Realism? (Hint: No)

As I mentioned in my last post, now that the term is over I am catching up on some stuff I've been meaning to read. Another item on that list is Georges Dicker's "Anti-Berkeley" which appeared in British Journal for the History of Philosophy in 2008. Dicker's aim is to show that many of Berkeley's arguments are good, but immaterialism, nevertheless, does not follow. Dicker thinks that Berkeley's arguments are best seen as showing us how to formulate a better version of materialism than the one common in Berkeley's day. So, for instance, Dicker thinks that Berkeley successfully refutes the...
Continue reading "Can Immediate Perception Save Realism? (Hint: No)"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Georges Dicker , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 2:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and Hume on Unconvincing Arguments

But that all his [Berkeley's] arguments, though otherwise intended, are, in reality, merely sceptical, appears from this, that they admit no answer and produce no conviction. Their only effect is to cause that momentary amazement and irresolution and confusion, which is the result of scepticism. (David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748): sect. 12.1.15) I am not to be persuaded by metaphysical arguments [for the existence of God] ... as they are not suited to my way of thinking they may perhaps puzzle but never will convince me. (Alciphron, the free-thinker, in Berkeley 1732 work by that name, sect....
Continue reading "Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and Hume on Unconvincing Arguments"

Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Turbayne on Alleged Refutations of Berkeley

The argument [for idealism] achieves [a proof of the external world] in a most ingenious yet simple way, by accepting the sceptical conclusion of one such as Hylas, that all we can ever know of the external world is certain ideas or appearances, and then admitting, as any consistent empiricist must, that these appearances are real. After all, it is a jest to hold, as do the philosophers, that the things we see and touch are mere illusions.[18] [18] This final step illuminates the irony inherent in Dr. Johnson's notorious ostensive refutation of Berkeley's 'ingenious sophistry', by exclaiming while 'striking...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Turbayne on Alleged Refutations of Berkeley"

Topic(s): Colin Turbayne , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Immanuel Kant , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Realism
Posted by Kenny at 9:42 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

How Reductive Theories of Mental Representation Lead to Phenomenalism

It seems initially plausible to suppose that mental representation can be reduced to phenomenal character. That is, we all know that when we think about things we get into certain states of mind, and there is such a thing as what it's like to be in that state of mind. Now, when we think about things, we are representing the world as being in certain ways. It is tempting to suppose that this representing can be explained entirely in terms of the what-it's-like (phenomenal character). According to naive forms of representative realism, this is because that phenomenal experience resembles the...
Continue reading "How Reductive Theories of Mental Representation Lead to Phenomenalism"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Realism , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 12:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Biblical Literalism as Hyper-Perspicuity

Last night I was at a lecture on science and religion at USC's Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. (Evidently, we have an Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. Who knew?) In the course of a lecture with which I otherwise mostly agreed, Fr. Paul Heft connected radical Biblical literalism with the Reformers. This is, of course, strictly false: the Reformers were not literalists in anything like the sense in which twentieth century fundamentalists were. However, it got me thinking about what connection the doctrine of perspicuity, which I was recently discussing on Called to Communion, might have to radical literalism...
Continue reading "Biblical Literalism as Hyper-Perspicuity"

Topic(s): Bible , Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Hyper-Reformation Theology , Perspicuity , Protestantism , Roman Catholic Church , Scripture and Tradition , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Simple Argument for Idealism

One of Berkeley's key arguments for his idealism (his positive view that the only fundamental entities are minds and ideas) is something like the following: (1)The gardener is justifiably certain that he waters the cherry tree daily. (2)One can be justifiably certain only of facts about one's own mind and its ideas. Therefore, (3)The gardener's belief that he waters the cherry tree daily is a belief about his own mind and/or its ideas. (1) is a 'common sense' premise, which Berkeley thinks we ought to preserve. (2) is supposed to have been shown by the skeptical considerations of Descartes and...
Continue reading "A Simple Argument for Idealism"

Topic(s): David Hume , Epistemology , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 12:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Philosophers' Carnival 103

The 103rd Philosophers' Carnival is now up at Philosophy, etc. with a link to my post on seeing the world through teleology-colored glasses. Also of interest in the new philosophers' carnival is Chris Hallquist's discussion of reformed epistemology and moral realism. In the course of his discussion, Chris gives a narrative of the history of early modern philosophy which is similar to my Berkeley-centric narrative (despite not mentioning Berkeley): Descartes sets up an impossible program, Hume shows that either Cartesian or classical empiricist assumptions lead inevitably to skepticism, and this motivates a 'Reidian' program...
Continue reading "Philosophers' Carnival 103"

Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Blog Carnivals , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , The Web , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 4:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

A Berkeley-Centric Narrative

Continuing the discussion of the historiography of modern philosophy, I want to consider an alternative narrative. The standard narrative is Kant-centric: the rationalists and empiricists spend a century squabbling, then Kant comes along and figures out what's right and what's wrong with each view, resulting in the Critical Philosophy. The key figures, apart from Kant, are Descartes, the great founder of the rationalists; Locke, the great founder of the empiricists; and Hume who called attention to the severe failings of both schools. (When I took intro to modern at Penn, this is exactly the way it went: these were the...
Continue reading "A Berkeley-Centric Narrative"

Topic(s): Alvin Plantinga , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , Immanuel Kant , John Locke , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Thomas Reid
Posted by Kenny at 11:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (2)

Alternative Groupings of Early Modern Philosophers

Last month, there was some blog discussion about historiography and teaching methods in early modern philosophy. The standard story is evidently due to Hegel, and continues to be standard despite being unpopular among specialists in history of modern. It groups modern philosophers before Kant as follows:

Rationalists
Descartes
Spinoza
Leibniz

Empiricists
Locke
Berkeley
Hume

Dana McCourt, blogging at The Edge of the American West...
Continue reading "Alternative Groupings of Early Modern Philosophers"

Topic(s): Baruch Spinoza , Contemporary Thinkers , David Hume , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Historiography of Philosophy , John Locke , Nicolas Malebranche , Penelope Maddy , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Thomas Hobbes
Posted by Kenny at 1:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Subjunctive Phenomenalism and Logical Construction Idealism

Within the last week, I have seen the same mistake in two different recent books on the philosophy of perception: According to phenomenalism, objects are (in John Stuart Mill's excellent phrase) "permanent possibilities of sensation"; they are, in a more recent idiom, "logical constructions" of sense data. (Alva Noë, Action in Perception, 79) Berkeley observed that the philosophical conception that the objects of direct awareness are sense-data (or, in Berkeley's terminology, "ideas") is perfectly compatible with the commonsense conception that the objects of direct awareness are ordinary things (e.g., tomatoes). We can accept both, Berkeley argued, if we recognize the...
Continue reading "Subjunctive Phenomenalism and Logical Construction Idealism"

Topic(s): Alva Noë , Anil Gupta , Bertrand Russell , C. I. Lewis , Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Kenneth P. Winkler , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Does 'The Desk is Black' Express a Proposition?

According to standard versions of subjunctive phenomenalism, such as the version developed by C. I. Lewis, sentences purporting to be about physical objects can be analyzed into long conjunctions of subjunctive conditionals having to do only with sense data and voluntary actions. It's very difficult to actually state these conditionals, but they are supposed to say things like 'if I'm in such and such a condition, and I do X, I will experience Y'. Alva Noë is not a phenomenalist, but he expresses some similar ideas about the nature of perception. Specifically, Noë argues that perception does not involve the...
Continue reading "Does 'The Desk is Black' Express a Proposition?"

Topic(s): Alva Noë , C. I. Lewis , Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 5:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: A Source in Descartes for Berkeley's Visual Language Theory?

We must take care not to assume - as our philosophers [i.e. the scholastics] commonly do - that in order to have sensory awareness the soul must contemplate certain images [i.e. the species] transmitted by objects to the brain; or at any rate we must conceive the nature of these images in an entirely different manner from that of the philosophers. For since their conception of the images is confined to the requirement that they should resemble the objects they represent, the philosophers cannot possibly show us how the images can be formed by the objects, or how they can...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: A Source in Descartes for Berkeley's Visual Language Theory?"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Mind , Quote of the Day , Rene Descartes , Sense Perception
Posted by Kenny at 4:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Berkeley on Combining Ideas Into Objects

One of the big questions in Berkeley interpretation is how and by whom ideas or experiences get put together to form objects. (See, for instance, the end of Margaret Atherton's recent paper "'The Books Are in the Study as Before': Berkeley's Claims About Real Physical Objects".) I've just noticed an interesting passage in Berkeley that ought to be really important to this discussion, though I don't think I've seen it quoted in this connection: [I]t ought to be considered that number (however some may reckon it amongst the primary qualities) is nothing fixed and settled, really existing in things themselves....
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Berkeley on Combining Ideas Into Objects"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Margaret Atherton , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The New Cambridge Berkeley Volume

A brief review of George Berkeley, Philosophical Writings, ed. Desmond M. Clarke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). ISBN: 978-0-521-70762-6. 338 pp. $29.99 on Amazon. I recently acquired a copy of the new Berkeley volume in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, edited by Desmond M. Clarke. Clarke's selection of texts is quite good. As far as I know, this is the only collection of its kind to include excerpts from Alciphron and Siris, and the excerpts are well chosen. From Alciphron, we have the Dialogue IV's divine language argument for the existence of God, and Dialogue VII's theory...
Continue reading "The New Cambridge Berkeley Volume"

Topic(s): Desmond M. Clarke , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and 'Functional Role Semantics'

The second approach [to intentionality on the computational model of cognition] is known as functionalism (actually, "functional role semantics" in discussions of meaning) in philosophy, and as procedural semantics in cognitive psychology and computer science. Functionalism says that what gives internal symbols (and external symbols too) their meanings is how they function ... This picture can be bolstered by a consideration of what happens when one first learns Newtonian mechanics. In my own case, I heard a large number of unfamiliar terms more or less all at once: "mass", "force", "energy", and the like. I never was told definitions of...
Continue reading "Quotes of the Day: Berkeley and 'Functional Role Semantics'"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Ned Block , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 8:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Reductivism, Eliminativism, and Berkeley's Theory of Physical Objects

In present-day metaphysical discussions it is common to distinguish between 'reductivism' and 'eliminativism' with respect to some class of objects, C. These can be thought of as two different ways of denying the (fundamental, metaphysical) existence/reality of the objects in C. Examples of classes discussed by philosophers in this way include minds, conscious experiences, and macrophysical objects. The two views may be given a linguistic formulation as follows: Linguistic Reductivism (LR): Sentences which appear to assume the existence of the putative objects in C are strictly and literally true, although, in metaphysical rigor, the putative objects do not exist. (The...
Continue reading "Reductivism, Eliminativism, and Berkeley's Theory of Physical Objects"

Topic(s): Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

External Coherence and the Reality of The Matrix

David Chalmers writes: I think that even if I am in a matrix [i.e. any computer simulation similar to the one depicted in The Matrix], my world is perfectly real. A brain in a vat is not massively deluded (at least if it has always been in a vat) ... Philosophers have held this sort of view before. The 18th-century Irish philosopher George Berkeley held, in effect, that appearance is reality ... If this is right, then the world perceived by envatted beings is perfectly real: they have all the right appearances and appearance is reality ("The Matrix as Metaphysics"...
Continue reading "External Coherence and the Reality of The Matrix"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Chalmers , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 4:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The Master Zombie Argument

Berkeley's so-called 'Master Argument' and Chalmers' 'Zombie Argument' are two famous arguments that turn on the relationship between conceivability and possibility. I have been thinking for some time about an amusing (and perhaps somewhat troubling) way of putting the two together. First, let me give simplified versions of the two arguments. The Master Argument (MA): (MA1) Whatever is conceived is conceived by some mind. (MA2) Whatever is conceived by a mind is in that mind. Therefore, (MA3) Nothing can be conceived that is not in a mind. (MA4) Whatever is inconceivable is impossible. Therefore, (MA5) It is impossible for anything...
Continue reading "The Master Zombie Argument"

Topic(s): Conceivability , Contemporary Thinkers , David Chalmers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Modality , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Intelligent Design and Scientific Instrumentalism

John Beaudoin's recent paper "Sober on Intelligent Design Theory and the Intelligent Designer" contains the following fascinating remark in a footnote: [William] Dembski has suggested that the designer referred to in ID theory need not be real: it could in principle be treated by design theorists as a mere useful fiction, if that should better fit with a particular design theorist's philosophy of science. Beaudoin cites Dembski's No Free Lunch, p. 15, and The Design Revolution, p. 65. I haven't bothered to read too much on the whole ID thing because it is not closely related to my main philosophical interests and from a theological/religious perspective seems like a mere distraction. Furthermore, most ID types seem to me to exaggerate the problems of 'orthodox' evolutionary biology...
Continue reading "Intelligent Design and Scientific Instrumentalism"

Topic(s): Bas van Fraassen , Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Instrumentalism , Intelligent Design , John Beaudoin , Penelope Maddy , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Science , William Dembski
Posted by Kenny at 9:08 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

A Semantic Argument for Phenomenalism

I believe an argument similar to the following can be attributed to Berkeley, but I have too much real work to do to go find the texts to justify it right now. (Which is why we have blogs, where we don't have to adequately justify our assertions!) The meaning of a word is exhausted by the correct conditions of its application. Any speaker S on any given occasion determines whether to utter a given word based entirely on S's subjective state (i.e. factors internal to S). Speakers consistently and non-accidentally use 'plain language' correctly (i.e. 'common sense' is correct). Therefore,...
Continue reading "A Semantic Argument for Phenomenalism"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Semantic Externalism
Posted by Kenny at 11:55 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Leibniz on Survival of Death

One of the quandaries I ran into in writing my paper on Berkeley on resurrection is the question of what the 'revealed' Christian doctrine is supposed to be. In particular, there is the question of natural versus miraculous immortality of the soul. Some writers who seek to defend the Christian doctrine of survival of death assume that it is part of the doctrine that this survival is miraculous. (For a recent example, see Lynne Rudder Bakker's "Persons and the Metaphysics of Resurrection" which appeared in Religious Studies in 2007; James Ross also brought this up in his criticisms of my...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Leibniz on Survival of Death"

Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 6:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Locke, Berkeley, and 'Common Sense'

John Locke is often portrayed as a 'philosopher of common sense' (or, 'tempered common sense', some say), and George Berkeley as a proponent of a bizarre and novel metaphysics which is radically discontinuous with common sense. However, it is Berkeley, much more than Locke, who is constantly appealing to 'common sense' in support of his views. Why is this? And how is it that Berkeley, with his radical metaphysical claims, purports to be a defender of common sense? The answer, I believe, is that the philosophies of Locke and Berkeley are related to our ordinary beliefs in radically different ways...
Continue reading "Locke, Berkeley, and 'Common Sense'"

Topic(s): 'Common Sense'/Intuition , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 5:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Quote of the Day: A Summary of Berkeley's Mature Doctrine of Signs

Although the details are sketchy, Berkeley's basic point is clear: A sign may be significant not because it marks an idea, or even because it can be traced to something with which we are immediately acquainted, but because it is a working part of a system of signs that makes a genuine difference to our lives - to our thoughts, actions, and emotions. (Kenneth P. Winkler, "Berkeley and the Doctrine of Signs" in Winkler, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley, p. 151) This is Winkler's summary of Berkeley's mature "doctrine of signs" as developed in Alciphron 7. By the way,...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: A Summary of Berkeley's Mature Doctrine of Signs"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Kenneth P. Winkler , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 4:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Cartesian Demon Skepticism as 'Adversarial Epistemology'

In one of my computer science classes in undergrad, we discussed a particular way of thinking about the efficiency of an algorithm, which the professor called 'adversarial upper bounds'. The idea was to suppose that someone knows the 'guts' of your algorithm - exactly how it works - and that person is trying to make your algorithm take as many steps to complete as possible. The upshot was that sometimes with this kind of system inserting some randomness will give you a better expectation value. For instance, suppose I am trying to find a route (just any route) from A...
Continue reading "Cartesian Demon Skepticism as 'Adversarial Epistemology'"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , Donald Davidson , Epistemology , George Berkeley , Hilary Putnam , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Rene Descartes , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Reason for Berkeley's Anti-Abstractionism

In my post, Does Philosophy 'Trickle Down', I noted that "Berkeley thinks he has discovered two philosophical doctrines which are indeed 'the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences' and also 'the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion.' These are the epistemic/linguistic doctrine of abstraction, and the metaphysical doctrine of corporeal substance." In this post I want to examine how the doctrine of abstract ideas is supposed, according to Berkeley, to lead to "Error and Difficulty in the Sciences ... [and] ... Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion."...
Continue reading "The Reason for Berkeley's Anti-Abstractionism"

Topic(s): Epistemology , Familiar Objects , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Does Philosophy 'Trickle Down'?

One of the interesting things about George Berkeley as a historical figure is that he labors under the peculiar belief that he is writing philosophy out of pastoral concerns. I like to illustrate Berkeley's purposes by reference to the subtitles he gave to his works. The Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge is subtitled, "wherein the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences, with the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion, are inquired into." Berkeley thinks he has discovered two philosophical doctrines which are indeed "the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences" and also "the Grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion." These are the epistemic/linguistic doctrine of abstraction, and the metaphysical doctrine of corporeal substance...
Continue reading "Does Philosophy 'Trickle Down'?"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Science
Posted by Kenny at 5:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Berkeley's Own Summary of the Argument from Representational Realism to Skepticism

In a previous post, I summarized Berkeley's argument against representational realism. I just came across a very good passage in the Dialogues where Berkeley himself gives a summary of his argument that representational realism leads to unpalatable skeptical consequences: It is your opinion, the ideas we perceive by our senses are not real things, but images, or copies of them. Our knowledge therefore is no farther real, than our ideas are the true representations of those originals. But as these supposed originals are themselves unknown it is impossible to know how far our ideas resemble them; or whether they resemble...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Berkeley's Own Summary of the Argument from Representational Realism to Skepticism"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 12:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Simplicity of Berkeley's Argument Against Representative Realism

A passage in T.E. Jessop's introduction to the Siris reminded me today of how simple Berkeley's argument against representative realism is. Jessop writes, "Such archetypes - material things as understood by the Cartesians and Locke - [Berkeley] rejected on the epistemological ground that they require a representative theory of perception, which logically entails scepticism, since it excludes the possibility of comparing the sensed object and the supposed 'real object'." (Berkeley, Works, ed. Luce and Jessop, vol. 5 p. 17) The argument, in all its simplicity, goes like this: Representative realism holds that, for each object of our experience, there exist...
Continue reading "The Simplicity of Berkeley's Argument Against Representative Realism"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 3:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

"Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?'

My paper "Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?", which is to be presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division conference next week is now available on the conference web-site. I would greatly appreciate any comments or criticisms.
Continue reading ""Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?'"

Topic(s): Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Identity , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 10:43 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day: Appearances and Judgments About Appearances

And when we question whether the underlying object is such as it appears, we grant the fact that it appears, and our doubt does not concern the appearance itself but the account given of that appearance, - and that is a different thing from questioning the appearance itself. For example, honey appears to us to be sweet (and this we grant, for we perceive sweetness through the senses), but whether it is also sweet in its essence is for us a matter of doubt, since this is not an appearance, but a judgement regarding the appearance. (Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Appearances and Judgments About Appearances"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Idealism/Phenomenalism , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day , Sextus Empiricus , Skepticism
Posted by Kenny at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference

A paper of mine entitled "Can Berkeley's God Raise the Same Body, Transformed?" has been accepted to the Society Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference on "Mind, Body, and Free Will" at UC Riverside Oct. 30 - Nov. 1. The conference organizers plan to post papers online, and I will provide a link when they do. In the meantime, I've discussed some of the material in the paper here and here. My official abstract is as follows: Orthodox Christianity affirms a bodily resurrection of the dead. That is, Christians believe that at some point in the eschatological future, possibly after a period of (conscious or unconscious) disembodied existence, we will once again live and animate our own bodies...
Continue reading "Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division Conference"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 9:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Elsewhere on the Web

I'd like to draw all of your attention to a couple of sites. The first is Houyhnhnm Land (no, I don't have any idea how to pronounce 'Houyhnhnm' or what it means), a resource for the study of early modern thought created by Brandon Watson (of Siris fame). I have just finished my first post to the Houyhnhnm Land guest blog, "Berkeley and Ordinary Objects". In the future, I plan to cross-post everything, but for now I am going to tell all of you to click on over there and explore the site. Secondly, Logical Space, the brain child of Lewis Powell...
Continue reading "Elsewhere on the Web"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , The Web
Posted by Kenny at 7:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Representative Realism, Phenomenalism, and "Physical-Talk"

When I wrote a while back about the idealist strategy, I said that the second step was to "argue that our physical statements - both ordinary statements about physical objects and statements about the discipline of physics - are best construed as talking about perception." What I want to do here is to unpack this statement. First, let's examine what the argument is supposed to do and then we'll look at the argument as it appears in a brief section of Berkeley's Three Dialogues. This piece of the argument is a reductio against representative realism...
Continue reading "Representative Realism, Phenomenalism, and "Physical-Talk""

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Saul Kripke
Posted by Kenny at 6:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Language and the Metaphysics of the Material World

Let me begin with a reminder: be sure to get your posts in for the 67th Philosophers' Carnival by tomorrow (Saturday) midnight (Eastern time), and remember that the theme is idealism. I've received many good posts already (probably more than I'll be able to include), but only a handful are idealism-themed. Having said that, let me begin my own idealism-themed post. In my paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley" (which I never tire of linking to, because it is much better thought out, developed, and argued than the mostly half-baked stuff I post on this blog), I spend...
Continue reading "Language and the Metaphysics of the Material World"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Laws of Nature , Mereology , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Properties
Posted by Kenny at 9:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley: Phenomenalist or Platonist?

Commentators have long recognized the existence of two distinct strains of thought in Berkeley's discussions of how our perceptions give rise to something that is properly called a world. According to the phenomenalist strain, the world is quite simply composed of perception and it becomes a world, rather than simply an unrelated collection of perceptions, by means of the orderliness with which God causes perceptions. According to the Platonist strain, the world (and each object in it) has an archetype in the divine mind and our perceptions are perceptions of the world because what we perceive is an "ectype" of that archetype...
Continue reading "Berkeley: Phenomenalist or Platonist?"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Gregory of Nyssa , Historical Thinkers , John Foster , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Stephen H. Daniel
Posted by Kenny at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Theory of Reference and the Critique of Matter

George Berkeley is well known for his critique of matter. By "matter" he means Locke's "material substratum." At the end of the Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous he actually does acknowledge that one might use the word "matter" simply to mean "the stuff of the physical world" (that's not a direct quote) and he doesn't object to this, so he actually isn't opposed to the way the word was used in your physics or chemistry classes, but only to the way it was used in early modern metaphysics. The critique of matter is tied up in the critique of...
Continue reading "Berkeley's Theory of Reference and the Critique of Matter"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 2:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

The Idealist Strategy

There is a particular strategy of argument generally employed by idealists in their arguments against materialism/physicalism/scientific realism and/or substance dualism. The strategy originates primarily with Berkeley. Some of the Parmenides fragments sound similar, but, absent context, it is not possible to determine exactly what he intended. Hume and Kant developed their metaphysical systems largely in response to it, and it is similar to the arguments of the so-called "modern Idealists" which Moore set out to refute. Finally, the strategy is, in recent literature, explicitly adopted in John Foster's The Case for Idealism, which I am currently reading. The strategy goes like this...
Continue reading "The Idealist Strategy"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Foster , Metaphysics , Ontology , Parmenides , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 12:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (3)

Quote of the Day: Schopenhauer on The History of Idealism

Now as, notwithstanding the transitory, isolated nature of our representations with respect to their immediate presence in our consciousness, the Subject nevertheless retains the representation of an all-comprehensive complex of reality, as described above, by means of the function of the Understanding; representations have, on the strength of this antithesis, been viewed, as something quite different when belonging to that complex than when considered with reference to their immediate presence in our consciousness ... This view of matter, which is the ordinary one, is known under the name Realism. On the appearance of modern philosophy, Idealism opposed itself to this...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day: Schopenhauer on The History of Idealism"

Topic(s): Arthur Schopenhauer , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Ontology , Philosophy , Quote of the Day
Posted by Kenny at 9:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Transubstantiation vs. Real Presence

The God Fearin' Fiddler has a post up on the historical significance of transubstantiation which has led to some interesting discussions. The principle problem with this post and the discussion that follows it, however, is that no one seems to understand the difference between transubstantiation and the Real Presence. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on this either, but I do think I know enough to clear up some historical and metaphysical confusion. I am going to use two principal sources - session 13 of the Council of Trent, and the relevant article from the Catholic Encyclopedia - to explain the historical development and specific content of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and then attempt to show two things...
Continue reading "Transubstantiation vs. Real Presence"

Topic(s): Aristotle , Augustine , Church Dogmatics , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Jesus of Nazareth , Metaphysics , Nicolas Malebranche , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Plato , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , The Eucharist , Theology , Thomas Aquinas
Posted by Kenny at 6:09 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack (2)

Berkeley, Computers, and Time

I read a very interesting paper by James Van Cleve today, regarding a pair of arguments originally made by Jorge Luis Borges to the effect that either Berkeley's idealism or Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernables could be used to prove the unreality of time. The paper is "Time, Idealism, and the Identity of Indiscernables," Philosophical Perspectives 16 (2002): 379-393. Van Cleve identifies three "axioms of time order" which Borges' arguments are designed to undermine...
Continue reading "Berkeley, Computers, and Time"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , James Van Cleve , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Technology , Time
Posted by Kenny at 5:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley"

My paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley" is now available on my writings page. An earlier version of this paper served as my undergraduate honors thesis, and a somewhat reduced version of it has been accepted for publication by Religious Studies. I haven't heard anything about what issue it will appear in. This paper discusses Berkeley's theory that our sense perceptions (especially visual perceptions) form a language by which God communicates with us, and asks how we are to interpret this language. In particular, it argues...
Continue reading ""The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley""

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion , The Web , This Web-Site
Posted by Kenny at 7:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

"The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics"

The Dualist 13 (2006) is finally available online, including my paper "The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics". Unfortunately, the main index site is still badly broken. Hopefully it will soon be fixed. In the meantime, the direct link to my paper works. There are some typesetting errors in the PDF (most importantly: footnote numbering is messed up, and some logical symbols are boxed out), and I haven't seen the print version to know if it contains these errors as well. I was never shown any proofs and I also found some spelling errors, and at least one place where a sentence is missing a word. Such is life. But the content is, I hope more interesting than the form...
Continue reading ""The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics""

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , David Lewis , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Ontology , Philosophy , W.V.O. Quine
Posted by Kenny at 6:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Armstrong on Berkeley

I was looking on half.com recently to see if I could find an affordable volume containing Berkeley's Siris last week when I came upon this 1965 collection, Berkeley's Philosophical Writings (ISBN 0020641702 according to half.com; it's apparently too old to have an ISBN printed in it) edited and with introduction by none other than D. M. Armstrong. I was unable to find any further information on the book, but, at half.com prices, decided it was worth buying just to get Armstrong's introduction (and on the off-chance that it contained Siris). Since there was no information on this book available online, and there are more copies still available, I thought I should provide some information myself...
Continue reading "Armstrong on Berkeley"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , D.M. Armstrong , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 10:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Paper #2: For Real This Time

Before I left last week, I sent in to Religious Studies the final draft of my paper "The Semantics of Sense Perception in Berkeley," which they have accepted for publication. The paper discusses the meaning of the "universal language of the Author of Nature" Berkeley argues for in the Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision and elsewhere. Essentially, the question I try to begin to answer is "if sense perception is a language by which God speaks to us, then what is he saying?" (I say "begin" because I have not developed a detailed semantic theory, but only offered...
Continue reading "Paper #2: For Real This Time"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy , Philosophy of Language , Philosophy of Religion
Posted by Kenny at 8:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote(s) of the Day: Selections From Berkeley's Letter to Sir John James

In the course of a bit of research on Berkeley's views on the epistemology of religion, I have just come across a little letter Berkeley wrote to one Sir John James, dated June 7, 1741. James was, apparently, an Anglican living in Boston who was considering converting to Roman Catholicism. While for some reason (perhaps because he was Irish) Berkeley is often mistakenly believed to have been a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he was, in fact, a member of the clergy of the Church of England, and wrote against Roman Catholicism on a number of occasions, this being...
Continue reading "Quote(s) of the Day: Selections From Berkeley's Letter to Sir John James"

Topic(s): Anglican Communion , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Protestantism , Quote of the Day , Roman Catholic Church , The Church , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

The Ontological Economy of Idealism

The following is an excerpt from a draft of my metaphysics term paper, which I thought might be of interest to readers. The paper presents an idealist theory of properties under which two things are said to have a property if those two things are or would be indistinguishable under some specified conditions. I call this account, fittingly enough, the "conditional indistinguishability" analysis of properties. After presenting the conditional indistinguishability account, I discuss the ontological economy of the idealist theory from which it arises, as compared especially to the currently dominant physicalist assumptions, but also to substance dualism: The theory...
Continue reading "The Ontological Economy of Idealism"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"Common Sense," "Pre-Theoretical Intuitions," and Philosophy

I am presently reading Peter van Inwagen's Material Beings (I'm not sure if it's going to actually help with my very strange philosophy of religion term paper wherein I argue that idealism is compatible with a belief in the bodily resurrection of the dead, or if I'm just procrastinating). In section 10, after denying that there are, in metaphysical rigor, any artifacts (i.e. inanimate macrophysical objects, such as chairs), van Inwagen makes the following remark: Does my position not fly in the face of common sense? I do not think so. This is not because I think that my position is in accord with "common sense," but rather because I do not think that there is any such thing as the body of doctrine the philosophers call common sense...
Continue reading ""Common Sense," "Pre-Theoretical Intuitions," and Philosophy"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Meta-Philosophy , Metaphysics , Peter van Inwagen , Philosophy , Susan Schneider
Posted by Kenny at 2:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rational Atheism Entails Rational Solipsism?

In the Fourth Dialogue of Berkeley's Alciphron, Alciphron the "Free-Thinker" challenges Berkeley's spokesman, Euphranor, to present a proof of the existence of God. Alciphron, however, lays down some quite stringent conditions: First then, let me tell you I am not persuaded by metaphysical arguments; such, for instance, as are drawn from the ideas of an all-perfect being, or the absurdity of an infinite progression of causes. This sort of arguments I have always found dry and jejune; and, as they are not suited to my way of thinking, they may perhaps puzzle, but never will convince me. Secondly, I am...
Continue reading "Rational Atheism Entails Rational Solipsism?"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind , Philosophy of Religion , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 1:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Note on Middle Knowledge and Berkeleian Philosophy of Science

A thought occurred to me just now as I was reading the end of Sydney Shoemaker's "Causality and Properties" and thinking, as usual, of a Berkeleian response. What, we ask, are the truth-conditions or truth-makers for statements about natural laws and causality? Shoemaker has a story about properties being defined in terms of dispositions to act a certain way in the presence of certain other properties, and he thinks we can flesh out these statements in this way. For Berkeley, of course, the properties of physical objects can have no causal efficacy. Instead, Berkeley takes these statements to be simple...
Continue reading "A Note on Middle Knowledge and Berkeleian Philosophy of Science"

Topic(s): Contemporary Thinkers , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Science , Science , Sydney Shoemaker
Posted by Kenny at 12:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why Idealism?

I talk a lot about Berkeley on this blog, and it has probably become clear to most regular readers that I am quite sympathetic to his position. There are a number of reasons for holding to various forms of idealism, and I have already discussed the chain of inferences which leads Berkeley to his theory. Important also is Berkeley's critique of matter, which proceeds by collapsing Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities (this collapse is almost universally viewed as successful by later philosophers), then applying Locke's arguments that secondary qualities are not actually in the objects to all perceived...
Continue reading "Why Idealism?"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 12:12 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

On Moore's Alleged Refutation of Idealism

I've just finished reading G.E. Moore's paper, "The Refutation of Idealism." The paper was originally published in Mind in October 1903 and reprinted in Moore's Philosophical Studies in 1922, but I've got the version reprinted again in Colin Turbayne's edition of Berkeley's Principles with critical essays, and I'll be citing page numbers from there. Moore's target in the essay is not Berkeley directly (it is, of course, Berkeley in whom I am most interested here), but what he calls "modern Idealism." The modern Idealism described by Moore seems to be a sort of immaterialist panpsychism; that is, Moore claims that...
Continue reading "On Moore's Alleged Refutation of Idealism"

Topic(s): G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 7:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

My Five Favorite Philosophers

Recently, while I was busy with finals, Clarke at Mormon Metaphysics and Johnny-Dee at Fides Quarens Intellectum posted lists of their favorite philosophers. I thought that today I would do the same. I won't get fancy with pictures and stuff, because that's not my style (as you can plainly see if you are looking at this page), but I do have a list, roughly in order...
Continue reading "My Five Favorite Philosophers"

Topic(s): Arthur Schopenhauer , G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , John Locke , Parmenides , Philosophy , Plato
Posted by Kenny at 1:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Quote of the Day

ALCIPHRON: ... But what apology can be made for nonsense, crude nonsense? ... Look here, said he, opening a Bible, in the forty-ninth Psalm : ... "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the wickedness of my heels shall compass me about?" The iniquity of my heels! What nonsense after such a solemn introduction! EUPHRANOR: For my own part, I have naturally weak eyes, and know there are many things that I cannot see, which are nevertheless distinctly seen by others. I do not therefore conclude a thing to be absolutely invisible, because it is so to...
Continue reading "Quote of the Day"

Topic(s): Bible , Books of Wisdom/Poetry , Divine Revelation , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Philosophy , Philosophy of Religion , Quote of the Day , Theology
Posted by Kenny at 3:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Descartes, Berkeley, and Moore on the Existence of the Spiritual and the Physical

I have been thinking recently about Moore's argument for the existence of the physical world.
For those who may not be familiar, Moore's argument looks something like this:

Here is one hand; here is another
If there are two hands here, then two hands exist.
Hands are physical objects
Therefore, physical objects exist

This simple argument seems to be part of the reason why many contemporary analytic philosophers do not consider idealism a live issue (something that I intend to make it my business to change). However, it seems to me to have two enormous and equally simple defects:

It isn't actually an objection to Berkeley's theory, since Berkeley accepts all of the premises and the conclusion.
Most people who make this argument are physicalists but if you accept the argument then, by parity of reasoning, you must allow Descartes to prove the existence of the soul.

Continue reading "Descartes, Berkeley, and Moore on the Existence of the Spiritual and the Physical"

Topic(s): Epistemology , G. E. Moore , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Rene Descartes
Posted by Kenny at 6:22 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

My First Academic Journal Paper!

Last night I received word that a paper I wrote entitled "The Ontological Status of Dreams in Berkeleian Metaphysics" has been accepted for publication by The Dualist! The paper argues that the characteristics of dream perceptions by which we, in practice, distinguish them from waking perceptions prevent dream perceptions from functioning as a language in the way Berkeley believes waking perceptions do and thus provide a principled grounding for an ontological distinction between dreams and waking life...
Continue reading "My First Academic Journal Paper!"

Topic(s): G. W. Leibniz , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , My Life , Philosophy
Posted by Kenny at 4:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Berkeley's Taxonomy of Ideas

Since my post on Berkeley's metaphysics generated so much interesting discussion, I thought I would write a post on Berkeley's taxonomy of ideas. A particularly interesting (to me) aspect of this discussion is the way it plays into his critique of John Locke's theory of abstraction. Also of interest is the way this view (may have) influenced Immanuel Kant's epistemology of metaphysics. I'll skip lightly over that last one, because I don't understand Kant very well (who does?), but I re-read the Prolegomena recently and was thinking about this, so I'll float a few ideas by toward the end of...
Continue reading "Berkeley's Taxonomy of Ideas"

Topic(s): Epistemology , George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 6:29 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (2)

The Foundational Argument of Berkeleian Metaphysics

Metaphysics (theory of reality) is notoriously difficult to get off the ground. There is very little to start from, because everything else starts from here. However, as Descartes so famously observed, I, the one reasoning about metaphysics, am, in fact, reasoning about metaphysics, and therefore must, in some sense, exist. Descartes has been challenged by Neitszche (in Beyond Good and Evil) and others, for his inference from "there is thinking going on" to "there must be a substance which does the thinking," and, as little sympathy as I have for Neitzsche in general, I think that this may be a...
Continue reading "The Foundational Argument of Berkeleian Metaphysics"

Topic(s): George Berkeley , Historical Thinkers , Metaphysics , Philosophy , Philosophy of Mind
Posted by Kenny at 11:18 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack (2)

blog.kennypearce.net

George Berkeley Archives

February 4, 2021

Berkeley on the Phenomenology of Mathematics

February 24, 2020

Making (Non)Sense of Apophatic Theology

July 25, 2019

Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts

May 21, 2019

Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits

April 11, 2019

Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words

November 5, 2018

"Berkeley's Theory of Language"

September 15, 2018

Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Berkeley's Immaterialism

July 6, 2018

Philosophy and Trust in the Senses, from Montaigne to Berkeley

May 22, 2018

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction on Google Arts and Culture

May 18, 2018

Berkeley and Lokayata

February 21, 2018

"Ideas and Explanation in Early Modern Philosophy"

January 2, 2018

Berkeley and Toland on the Homoousion

August 20, 2017

George Berkeley and the Power of Words

June 28, 2017

Newton and Berkeley on the Scope of Natural Philosophy

April 24, 2017

Idealism and Christian Theology: Concluding Thoughts and Table of Posts

April 22, 2017

Airaksinen on Berkeley's Theological Ethics

March 26, 2017

Yandell on Berkeley and Creation

March 24, 2017

Recent and Forthcoming Publications and Lecture

March 16, 2017

Wainwright on Berkeley and Edwards

March 8, 2017

Spiegel on Berkeley and Orthodoxy

March 3, 2017

Idealism and Christian Theology: Introduction

January 12, 2017

Berkeley and Hobbes

December 22, 2016

Berkeley's Manuscript Introduction Digitized

November 15, 2016

Language and Structure Available for Pre-Order!

September 30, 2016

"Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language"

September 28, 2016

"What Descartes Doubted, Berkeley Denied, and Kant Endorsed"

May 3, 2016

Two Definitions of 'Empiricism'

March 8, 2016

Trinity College Dublin

January 8, 2016

Language and Structure to be Published by OUP

November 27, 2015

Deism, Anthropomorphism, and Religion

August 21, 2015

Between Incredulity and Superstition

June 15, 2015

Understanding Sentences: Port-Royal, Locke, and Berkeley

March 25, 2015

"Matter, God, and Nonsense: Berkeley's Polemic Against the Freethinkers in the Three Dialogues"

October 20, 2014

"How Berkeley's Gardener Knows his Cherry Tree"

July 12, 2014

"Berkeley's Lockean Religious Epistemology" in JHI

April 23, 2014

Hudson on Skeptical Theism and Divine Deception

February 21, 2014

Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World (Doctoral Dissertation)

November 7, 2013

Berkeley's Second-Order Anti-Skepticism

September 9, 2013

"Berkeley's Meta-Ontology: Bodies, Forces, and the Semantics of 'Exists'"