Berkeley, an introduction / Jonathan Dancy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dancy, Jonathan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Berkeley, George, 1685-1753.

Berkeley, George.

Physical Description:

165 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford, UK ; New York, NY, USA : B. Blackwell, 1987.

Summary:

This new introduction to the main themes of Berkeley's philosophy assumes no previous knowledge of philosophy and will be accessible to first-year students and to the interested general reader. It also offers and defends its own interpretation of Berkeley's position.

Jonathan Dancy argues that we understand Berkeley's idealism best if we take seriously his claim that realism (the view that material things have an existence independent of the mind) derives from a mistaken use of abstraction. Stress is laid on Berkeley's determination to use idealism to bring his God as close to us as possible. Instances of this are his claims that the world we live in is a collection of ideas in God's mind, and that natural events are divine utterances which science is the attempt to interpret. Dancy also discusses Berkeley's attack on the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, and his views on perception and knowledge. There is an account of his theory of the mind and of the nature of human action, and a final chapter contrasts the interpretation offered here with others.

Students who have read this book will be well equipped to understand and assess the frequent references to Berkeley in current literature.

Contents:

2 Realism and Representative Realism 9

3 Abstraction 24

4 God 41

5 Real Things 57

6 Perception and Knowledge 77

7 Science 95

8 The Language of God 113

9 Spirits 129.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages [159]-161.

ISBN:

0631155090

0631145257 :

OCLC:

14906007