Berkeley and Irish Philosophy

by David Berman

Overview

The first essay in David Berman's new collection examines the full range of Berkeley's achievement, looking not only at his classic works of 1709-1713, but also Alciphron (1732) and his final book, the enigmaic Siris (1744). Item two examines a key problem in Berkeley's New Theory of Vision (1709): why does the moon look larger on the horizon than in the meridian? The third item criticizes the view, still uncritically accepted by many, that Berkeley's attacks on materialism are levelled against Locke.

Part 2 opens with Berman's two essays of 1982 - the first to show that Berkeley came from a rich and coherent Irish philosophical background. Next comes a discussion of the link between Berkeley and Francis Hutcheson, and particularly their answers to the Molyneux problem, which Berman takes to be the root problem of Irish philosophy.
The fourth essay looks at the impact of the golden age Irish philosophy on eighteenth-century American philosophy, where, again, Berkeley has a central position. The last item examines Berkeley's influence on Samuel Beckett.

Part 3 shows the many-sidedness of Berkeley's career, which is missed by those who concentrate exclusively on his work of 1709-1713. Each item here presents new material on Berkeley's life, or on his works and thought; most of these are new letters, not included in the Luce-Jessop edition of the Works of Berkeley. This section, therefore, can be seen a supplement to volumes 8 and 9 of the Works and also to Luce's Life of Berkeley.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441126351
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/15/2009
Series:	Continuum Studies in British Philosophy
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David Berman is Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. His previous books on Berkeley include Alciphron ...: In Focus (ed.), Routledge 1993, George Berkeley: Idealism and the Man, OUP 1994 and Berkeley: Experimental Philosophy, Phoenix Books 1997.

Table of Contents

Note on the Text

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I Berkeley's Philosophy

1 George Berkeley

2 On Missing the Wrong Target

Part II The Golden Age of Irish Philosophy

3 Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment in Irish Philosophy

4 The Culmination and Causation of Irish Philosophy

5 Frances Hutcheson on Berkeley and the Molyneux Problem

6 The Impact of Irish Philosophy on the American Enlightenment

7 Irish Ideology and Philosophy

Part III New Berkeley Letters and Berkeleiana

8 An Early Essay concerning Berkeley's Immaterialism

9 Mrs Berkeley's Annotations in An Account of the Life of Berkeley (1776)

10 Some New Bermuda Berkeleiana

11 The Good Bishop: New Letters

12 Becket and Berkeley

Index