Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Berkeley’s life and works
- 2 Was Berkeley an empiricist or a rationalist?
- 3 Berkeley’s notebooks
- 4 Berkeley’s theory of vision and its reception
- 5 Berkeley and the doctrine of signs
- 6 Berkeley’s argument for immaterialism
- 7 Berkeley on minds and agency
- 8 Berkeley’s natural philosophy and philosophy of science
- 9 Berkeley’s philosophy of mathematics
- 10 Berkeley’s moral and political philosophy
- 11 Berkeley’s economic writings
- 12 Berkeley on religion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Berkeley’s life and works
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 August 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Berkeley’s life and works
- 2 Was Berkeley an empiricist or a rationalist?
- 3 Berkeley’s notebooks
- 4 Berkeley’s theory of vision and its reception
- 5 Berkeley and the doctrine of signs
- 6 Berkeley’s argument for immaterialism
- 7 Berkeley on minds and agency
- 8 Berkeley’s natural philosophy and philosophy of science
- 9 Berkeley’s philosophy of mathematics
- 10 Berkeley’s moral and political philosophy
- 11 Berkeley’s economic writings
- 12 Berkeley on religion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
George Berkeley was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, on March 12, 1685, into what now would be called an Anglo-Irish family. He grew up in Dysart Castle, near Thomastown, and attended school at Kilkenny College, which he left in 1700 for Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a scholar and graduated B.A. in 1704. He then remained in college, waiting for a fellowship to fall vacant. It is at this time that his career can be said to have begun. Probably the most helpful way of structuring his career is to see it as falling into three periods - early, middle, and late - each dominated by or centering around a project or crusade. The early period is dominated by Berkeley's immaterialist philosophy, for which he is now best known, a philosophy that was developed around 1707, then published in 1709-13. The second great project was his Bermuda college, conceived circa 1722 and made public in 1724. Berkeley's third and final crusade was about tar-water, a medicine which first attracted his attention around 1741 and which he publicized in 1744.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley , pp. 13 - 33Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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