Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-c4bhq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-21T15:03:51.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Berkeley's Master Argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2024

Michael Wreen*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Marquette University, Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

One of Berkeley's best-known arguments for the view that there are no material objects is the so-called Master Argument. There are several good critical discussions of it. That invites the question: is there anything new to say? Well, it will be argued, there are a few things to say. First, although refutations by logical analogy have been advanced against the Master Argument, the strongest such refutation, one which demonstrates its incoherence, has not been. It is here. Second, there are few formal reconstructions of the Master Argument – the great majority of discussions treat it discursively – but a formal reconstruction, and one not found elsewhere, is offered here. Third, the formal reconstruction makes possible identification of the essential mistake of the argument. That mistake is equivocation. The common complaint that Berkeley illicitly introduces the act of conceiving into the content of the concept conceived is not quite correct; but to the extent that it is correct, it's explicable in terms of an underlying equivocation. Fourth, the article presupposes no acquaintance with Berkeley's work and is written in a conversational, easy-to-read style. Given that Berkeley himself wrote in a similar style, he could at least agree that the fourth point is a merit of the article.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Institute of Philosophy

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Berkeley, George, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1954).Google Scholar
Berkeley, George, The Principles of Human Knowledge, in Principles, Dialogues, and Correspondence (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965).Google Scholar