A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

George Berkeley

Held by Long Room, Trinity Collegeread here

Read it here about 3 h of reading

Add to a shelf

Your shelves

Berkeley's 1710 argument that the external world is made of ideas, not material substance. He begins by saying the mind cannot form abstract ideas, then claims that to exist is to be perceived by a mind. What we call things are collections of ideas, and the regularity of experience comes from God, not from matter. He sets out to refute John Locke and defends the position against scepticism and atheism. Only Part I was ever published, and Part II never appeared.

Where it happens

Dysart Castle, County Kilkenny Berkeley's birthplace, near Thomastown.²
Trinity College Dublin Where Berkeley took his B.A. in 1704 and M.A. in 1707.²
Cloyne, County Cork His diocese as bishop from 1734 to 1753.²
Middletown, Rhode Island Site of Whitehall, Berkeley's home in America.²
Oxford Where Berkeley died and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral.²

Through time

1685George Berkeley is born on 12 March.²
1709Berkeley publishes An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision.²
1710The Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge appears; Part II is never published.¹²
1713Berkeley rewrites his case as Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous.²
1734Berkeley becomes Bishop of Cloyne and publishes The Analyst.²
1753Berkeley dies in Oxford on 14 January.²

Who is in it, and behind it

George Berkeley author

Anglo-Irish philosopher and clergyman (1685 to 1753), Bishop of Cloyne.¹²

John Locke subject

Contemporary whose account of perception Berkeley sets out to refute.¹²

Isaac Newton subject

Berkeley later argued against his absolute space, time and motion in De Motu.²

Immanuel Kant subject

One of the later thinkers deeply influenced by Berkeley's works.²

David Hume subject

Another later thinker influenced by Berkeley.²

Arthur Schopenhauer subject

Called Berkeley the father of idealism.²

What it is about

To be is to be perceived

Berkeley begins by asserting that existence is the state of being perceived by a perceiver.¹

No abstract ideas

The mind cannot conceive an abstract idea common to many particulars.¹

Ideas resemble only ideas

The external world consists of ideas, given regularity by God.¹³

Against Locke on matter

Berkeley denies material substance in reply to Locke's account of perception.¹²

In its own words

we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see. 4. My purpose therefore is, to try if I can discover what those Principles are which have introduced all that doubtfulness and uncertainty, those absurdities and contradictions, into the several sects of philosophy; insomuch that the wisest

INTRODUCTION. Berkeley's diagnosis of why philosophy has fallen into doubt. Read on

framing ABSTRACT IDEAS or notions of things. He who is not a perfect stranger to the writings and disputes of philosophers must needs acknowledge that no small part of them are spent about abstract ideas

INTRODUCTION. Target of the Introduction: the supposed power to frame abstract ideas. Read on

Nothing seems of more importance towards erecting a firm system of sound and real knowledge, which may be proof against the assaults of Scepticism, than to lay the beginning in a distinct explication of what is meant by thing, reality, existence; for in vain shall we dispute concerning the real exist

OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Opens the case with a call for a clear explanation of terms. Read on

Their ESSE is PERCIPI, nor is it possible they should have any existence out of the minds or thinking things which perceive them

OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. The slogan of the book: for unthinking things, to be is to be perceived. Read on

I do not argue against the existence of any one thing that we can apprehend either by sense or reflexion

OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. Berkeley answers the charge that he denies the reality of things. Read on

MATTER INVOLVES A CONTRADICTION.--Some there are who make a DISTINCTION betwixt PRIMARY and SECONDARY qualities

OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. His attack on the primary and secondary qualities distinction. Read on

The shape of the book

5 chapters, 37,157 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

George Berkeley, an Anglo-Irish philosopher and later Bishop of Cloyne, published the Treatise in 1710, a year after his Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision. After its poor reception he rewrote the argument in dialogue form as Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous in 1713. Berkeley is regarded as the founder of immaterialism, later called subjective idealism, and his work influenced Kant and Hume. The site carries the Project Gutenberg text with Berkeley's preface and introduction.

Free to read elsewhere

Project Gutenberg ebook #4723
Open Library search editions you can borrow or read
HathiTrust search full-view scans
Standard Ebooks search

Sources

Text: PG 4723; edition year not stated. Standard Ebooks page for 'The Principles of Human Knowledge' says not in catalogue yet. US public domain (Project Gutenberg licence).

Holder's record