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George Berkeley, sceptic, filozof și episcop Intrare editată

Creată 3 februarie 2005| Actualizat 2 aprilie 2016 5 Conversații A3472986

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George Berkeley (1685 - 1753), cel mai faimos filosof al Irlandei , a fost probabil și cel mai
mare episcop-filosof din lume de la Sfântul Augustin . Contribuția sa la filozofie a fost radicală și Unitate infinită de
pare să fi savurat propria reputație ca deținător al unor opinii scandaloase. În cartea sa Three improbabilitate
Dialogues , purtătorul său de cuvânt, Philonous, este acuzat de prietenul său îndoielnic Hylas că Citiți o intrare editată
este „cel care a menținut cea mai extravagantă părere care a intrat vreodată în mintea omului”. aleatoriu
Până la sfârșitul celor trei dialoguri, Philonous l-a înrolat bineînțeles pe Hylas, care se îndoiește,
ca un susținător ferm. Contemporanii lui Berkeley nu s-au convins atât de ușor, dar el a avut un
efect puternic asupra filozofului de mai târziu David Hume , care la rândul său a
influențatImmanuel Kant . Cu toate acestea, Kant nu a digerat sau acceptat niciodată punctul lui Clasificat în:
Berkeley și, deși a făcut mintea responsabilă pentru clasificarea lucrurilor, prin care mijloacele
prin care acestea sunt percepute, s-a simțit obligat să elaboreze o teorie a „Lucrului în sine”, Gândire profundă > Filosofie
care este exact ceea ce Berkeley a negat.
Istorie și politică > Personalități istorice
În secolul următor, Arthur Schopenhauer a folosit intuiția lui Berkeley ca bază pentru conceptul
său despre Lumea ca voință și idee . Din păcate, nici el nu a putut merge pe tot drumul și a spus
pur și simplu, fără să demonstreze, că Berkeley nu putea avea dreptate. Tweet

Opinia extravagantă a lui Berkeley

2
Compus de
Principalul punct al filozofiei lui Berkeley este că nu există materia. Nu există . Există doar
minți și idei care apar în acele minți. Toate lucrurile pe care le percepem sunt idei; faptul că le Recumbentman
percepem înseamnă că noi înșine suntem în esență minți.

Berkeley a îndrăznit să-l întrebe pe Sir Isaac Newton cu privire la matematică, în special la
infinitezimale. El însuși era un matematician abil și subtil; dar a insistat că nimic din lumea reală Editat de
nu poate fi împărțit la infinit. El a contestat, de asemenea, noțiunile lui Newton conform cărora
spațiul și timpul ar putea fi spus că există de la sine, fără să se întâmple nimic în ele. Timpul, a David B - Bufniță bibliotecară cântătoare
spus Berkeley, nu „curge în mod egal”, indiferent de conținutul său; timpul este succesiunea
ideilor din minte.

Libercugetul Referințe
Cum a ajuns la imaterialismul său este probabil destul de clar pentru a vedea. A început ca un h2g2 intrări
3
tânăr cu întrebări constante, după cum ne spune în caietul său privat : era „neîncrezător la opt Alpha Centauri
ani”. Atitudinea la modă pentru tinerii bărbați la începutul secolului al XVIII-lea a fost adoptarea
Soarele
unui radicalism aprofundat numit „Gândire liberă”, care a contestat toată înțelepciunea
acceptată, și în special religia. Sfântul Augustin - Episcop de Hipona

Tânărul Berkeley pare să fi aplicat metoda gândirii libere în tot ceea ce a întâlnit. Când a studiat Cum să fii filozof
filozofia la Trinity College din Dublin, noul și interesant manual a fost Eseul despre înțelegerea
Ludwig Wittgenstein
umană a lui John Locke , iar în el, ochiul de vultur al lui Berkeley a căzut pe o descriere hotărât
4 Metafizica lui Immanuel Kant
dusă a substanței . Acesta este definit ca ceva despre care presupunem că stă la baza tuturor
trăsăturilor perceptibile ale lucrurilor, deși substanța nu este perceptibilă în sine, conform lui Briciul lui Occam
5
Locke . Isaac Newton: Geniu

Applying to Substance the scepticism the Freethinkers applied to God, Berkeley concluded that
this mysterious matter is something which makes no appearance in the world, and which we Linkuri externe
can do perfectly well without. Logically, to say that we cannot imagine doing without something
David Hume
is not sufficient to prove that such a thing is present6. Indeed, by Occam's Razor7 we are bound
to discredit such an imaginary entity. Arthur Schopenhauer

Lumea ca voință și idee

We are left then with nothing but our perceptions; but the evident fact that our perceptions are
well-knit and coherent in daily life amounted, for Berkeley, to nothing short of the divine. In this John Locke
way his scepticism, followed unflinchingly to its conclusion, brought him back to religion.
RationalWiki: Argument din neîncredere
Nothing essentially inaccessible to mind can be presumed to exist: Berkeley's motto became
esse est percipi - 'to be is to be perceived'. We are not, however, isolated minds; we rely on Alexandru Papa
shared experience in the greatest and least things in life. The ground of our unity, the universal
mind within which we commonly perceive, act and communicate, he concluded, is God. Jonathan Swift

Berkeley accordingly became an advocate of religion; he took holy orders, as was required of Cadenus și Vanessa
those lecturing at Trinity College. He lectured in Greek, Hebrew and Divinity, becoming a Fellow Samuel Johnson
of the College in his early twenties. It may seem in hindsight a large step for Berkeley to decide
that the Source Of All is identical with the Holy Trinity as worshipped in the Church of Ireland, Universitatea din California
and to go all the way to becoming a bishop of that church; but he took that path, and it certainly
Înspre vest, cursul Imperiului își ia drumul
helped him achieve a good deal in his lifetime.
lexicograf
Vanessa and the American Venture
Tractatus
Berkeley must have been a most engaging and persuasive person. He became acquainted with
Transsubstanțiarea
Alexander Pope in London, who described him as possessing 'every virtue under heaven'8 -
extraordinary praise from such a sharp satirist. He was also friends with Jonathan Swift, who The Querist
called him 'an absolute philosopher', in the sense of one who does what is right rather than what
George Berkeley
is gratifying or convenient. Swift had a wealthy lover, Esther Vanhomrigh, whose story he told in
the poem Cadenus and Vanessa9. When Esther died she left a very large sum10 to Berkeley, Pagini de filosofie
although she was 'a perfect stranger' to him. Berkeley accepted this money as a godsend and Enciclopedia Internetului de Filosofie
made good use of it. He persuaded the British Government to grant him a further enormous
sum, £20,000, to go and found a university in America. Berkeley sailed to New England, where Filosofi striviți
he stayed for over two years. His plan was to build a seminary that would educate not only the Briciul lui Occam
European settlers' sons, but also young Native Americans and African slaves, so that they could
become ministers and teachers among their own peoples.
Not Panicking Ltd nu este responsabil
On the map, Bermuda seemed the ideal place for this. So much the worse for those who trust
pentru conținutul site-urilor externe de
maps, as Berkeley realised when he arrived in New England; Bermuda was utterly impractical for
internet
many reasons. By that time it was impossible to alter the terms of his government grant, which
in any case never came through11, so he endowed existing colleges instead. On leaving
America, Berkeley sent Harvard and Yale boxes of books, enriching their libraries. He also gave Scrieți o intrare
Yale a farm to support the college, which was at the time a struggling rural seminary with thirty
or forty students.
„Ghidul autostopitului în galaxie este o
When Berkeley was in America (1728 - 31), he was the most famous person ever to have carte cu totul remarcabilă. A fost
travelled there: his books had been published in London and he was a dean of the (Anglican) compilată și recompilată de multe ori și
Church of Ireland. At that time, to be a bishop, or even a dean, was no small matter; it was a sub mai multe editii diferite. Conține
position of influence perhaps comparable to that of a present-day senior executive of a major contribuții ale unui număr nenumărat de
corporation. călători și cercetători.”
Berkeley enlisted at least one effective disciple there, the American Samuel Johnson, who
Scrieți o intrare

consulted him and followed Berkeley's plan in setting up what is now Columbia University12.
The University of Pennsylvania also acknowledges his influence, as does the Berkeley Divinity Citiți mai multe
School at Newhaven.

There are now many towns in the USA named after George Berkeley, including the home of the Cele mai recente intrări
University of California. These were so named, probably not so much in recognition of his
philosophy, or his philanthropy, as for a stirring poem he wrote whose last verse begins 1. Faima postumă: Povestea speranței
'Westward the course of Empire takes its way.' balenei albastre

It's All In Your Head 2. „L'Homme Arme: a Mass for Peace” de

Karl Jenkins
Berkeley's American friend Samuel Johnson is not to be confused with his namesake, the
English lexicographer, who made an impatient attempt at refuting Berkeley's immaterialism. He 3. Electrocutarea accidentală a lui John
kicked a rock, so that his foot rebounded off it, to show that it contained matter; but in that act Feeks: o victimă a războaielor actuale
he only showed his failure to grasp what Berkeley's theory said. It has been misunderstood fairly
consistently ever since, though some philosophers, notably Ludwig Wittgenstein, have found it 4. „Good Omens” – Fiind un serial de
both logically sound and meaningful. In the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin there is a stained televiziune despre Nașterea lui Antihrist
glass window dedicated to George Berkeley, erected a hundred years after his death and 5. Oasele lui Napier - un ajutor de calcul
furnished with the wry quote: 'And when the multitude heard him, they were astonished at his
din secolul al XVII-lea
doctrine' (Matthew 22:32).
6. Execuția soldatului Eddie Slovik: o
To see the world in Berkeley's terms requires a mental change of perspective13 such as the poveste din al doilea război mondial
following:
7. Cum să eviți să fii condus de Pixie:
Question: How far away is the Milky Way? Sfaturi pentru autostopul populari

8. Cazul ciudat al craniului dispărut al lui

Hint: The nearest star we see at night, Alpha Centauri, is 4.24 light years away, and it is
Joseph Haydn
indeed in the Milky Way. That however is not the right answer.
9. Teresa Higginson - Sfântă, dar nu sfântă
Answer: Our own local star the Sun is in the Milky Way, as are we. Therefore the Milky Way is
at no distance at all. 10. Nelle Harper Lee: Context, influență,
controversă
Just as our solar system is completely in the galaxy, the physical world we inhabit is completely
in perception, that is to say, in the realm of the perceptible.

Something - it could be impatience or reluctance - has consistently prevented people from

working out just what is and is not implied by Berkeley's immaterialism. It is perhaps easier to
point to what Berkeley did not claim. He did not say that everything is 'in your head'. This makes
no sense, since heads are also in the realm of perceptible things. He did not say that things
have no solidity; solidity is a perceptible feature. He did not question the reality of the world, as
perceived; on the contrary, the obstinate empirical facts of the real world were the grounds of
his objection to Newton’s infinitesimals.

Remove matter and the world is left exactly as it was, only without one explanation of what
holds it together; an explanation which Berkeley found to be both unnecessary and insufficient.
One consequence to the thinker who takes this step is that the greatest miracles of religion and
fable become trivial compared to the single mystery that anything can appear to exist at all.

Berkeley excluded such scientific extensions of perception as telescopes and microscopes

from his common-sense world, the world in which we live and make our moral choices; he said
that what is seen through the microscope is another world. To this extent he was perhaps anti-
scientific; but on the other hand the scientific community has quietly come round to accepting
Berkeley's opinion as to the provisional and necessarily falsifiable status of scientific
hypotheses.

Common Sense
Berkeley denied the existence of substance, defined as something essentially inert or passive.
He allowed only two ways for something to have a claim to existence: either by perceiving, or by
being perceived. Locke's inert matter failed on both counts. Without the stimulus of Locke's
unfortunate description of substance, Berkeley's argument might not have arisen. The
interesting thing, though, is how many problems Berkeley solved with this stroke14 - too many,
for his contemporaries. Transubstantiation, for one, simply ceases to be an issue. Berkeley's
stance was ecumenical, as shown in his most successful publication, A Word to the Wise
(1749). Addressed to the bishops and clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, it urged them to
take steps to improve the circumstances of the Irish poor, by encouraging industry and self-
esteem. His words were direct and forceful, yet so tactfully chosen that the Roman Catholic
bishops and clergy responded with an enthusiastic endorsement.

In his later life, as Bishop of Cloyne in County Cork, Berkeley became a practical and energetic
promoter of the Irish people's wellbeing. He wrote The Querist, a challenging and ingenious tract
on economics15 and became famous as a healer of many various ills, using a purgative potion
whose recipe he may have learnt from the Native Americans: tar water. This became such a fad
that an apothecary in late 18th-Century London, when asked if he sold tar water, is said to have
replied that 'he sold nothing else'.

Further Reading
A list of further works on George Berkeley
For a serious look at the subject, try the Philosophy Pages or The Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
Squashed Philosophers - a history of Western thought for those with short attention spans
Applied thinking - How to Be a Philosopher

1 That is, if we accept that the Scholastic philosopher Duns Scotus (c1265-1308) came from
Scotland, as seems probable, though in his time 'Scotia' was the name given to Ireland, and the
two were counted as one nation. An earlier philosopher, John Scotus Eriugena, was certainly
born in Ireland in the 9th Century, and deserves consideration for his treatise The Voice of the
Eagle, a distillation of Celtic Christian wis­dom.

2 Berkeley was never sceptical about religion, as far as his writings show, and therefore modern
scholars are reticent to call him a sceptic. The word does also mean 'doubter' in other senses,
though, and in his own time Berkeley was indeed labelled a sceptic, notably by Andrew Baxter
and David Hume.

3 Berkeley, Philosophical Commentaries (his 'Commonplace Book'), entry no 266.

4 Locke, Essay, Bk 2 chapter 23: 'The idea which we have, to which we give the general name
substance, being nothing but the supposed, but unknown, support of those qualities we find
existing, which we imagine cannot subsist sine re substante, without something to support
them, we call that support substantia; which, according to the true import of the word, is, in plain
English, standing under or upholding.'

5 In this, Locke followed the Scholastics, particularly Aquinas, who in turn was following
Aristotle.

6 This is the logical fallacy known as 'the argument from incredulity '.
7 'Do not multiply entities unnecessarily' is a touchstone of scientific and philosophical method,
and an established legal maxim. Although it was a commonplace rule among the Scholastics, it
is not found in so many words in the writings of William of Ockham (c1285-1347). The name
'Razor' (Le Rasoir des Nominaux) was given to the saying in the 18th Century, and the name
'Occam's Razor' dates from 1852.

8 Pope, Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue ii, 73.
9 Swift's poem refers to himself as Cadenus, an anagram of Decanus, the Dean. Vanessa was
one of his pet names for Esther Vanhomrigh, derived from 'Essy-Van' - this is in fact the origin of
the name Vanessa.

10 She bequeathed some £3,000, equivalent to 100 times the annual earnings of a skilled
b ildi k 200 ti th f t h i E l d t th ti
building worker, or 200 times those of a teacher, in England at the time.

11 The wily Prime Minister, Walpole, had not set any date for the payment of the grant; and he
let it become known that the promise would never be fulfilled.

12 Originally King's College, New York.

13 'A galactic turn' is the phrase used by Berkeley's 20th Century biographer, AA Luce,
parallelling Kant's 'Copernican turn'.

14 A similar stroke was pulled by Wittgenstein at the start of his Tractatus , when he stated
'The world is the totality of facts, not of things' (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1.1). At the time
Wittgenstein was writing, the 'external world', the existence of things, was still a problem for
philosophers: an academic bother he thus neatly passed over.

15
The Querist conține idei de perspectivă, cum ar fi noțiunea de bani ca un fel de simbol sau
bilet, valoarea acestuia fiind destul de nelegată de cantitatea de aur din orice seif bancar. Alte
propuneri includ o bancă națională și o taxă pe murdărie.

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