George Berkeley

George Berkeley (1685-1753), Irish philosopher and clergyman, generally regarded as the founder of the modern school of idealism. He held that matter cannot be conceived to exist independent of the mind; the phenomena of sense can be explained only by supposing a deity that continually evokes perception in the human mind.

Born in county Kilkenny, Ireland, March 12, 1685, Berkeley studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a fellow in 1707. In 1710 he published Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. When it failed to convince people of his theory, he published a more popular version, The Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in 1713. Both statements of his philosophy were regarded as foolish by his contemporaries. Meanwhile Berkeley had been ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church of Ireland and became increasingly prominent as a churchman. In 1728 he went to America to attempt to found a missionary college in Bermuda. Although he abandoned his plan in 1732, Berkeley had a great effect on higher education while in America, assisting in the development of Yale and Columbia universities and a number of other schools. In 1734 Berkeley was made bishop of Cloyne, remaining in this position until his retirement. He died January 14, 1753.

Berkeley's philosophical theory was developed as an answer to skepticism and atheism. He claimed that skepticism arises when experience or sensations are separated from things. Once this has been done, no way of knowing about things is possible except through ideas. To overcome this separation, a person must recognize that the “being” of sensible things consists in their being perceived. Whatever is perceived is real, and the only things that can be known to exist are those that are perceived. In answer to the question, Do things exist only when perceived? he replied that things exist as ideas in a mind. Berkeley insisted, however, that things exist apart from the human mind and perception, as people cannot control what ideas they have. Therefore, there must be a mind in which all the ideas exist, an infinite omnipresent spirit, namely, God, that perceives everything.

Berkeley's philosophical system eliminated any possibility of knowledge of an external material world. Although his own system produced few followers, his criticisms of arguments for a separate external world and of the concept of matter were forceful and have influenced philosophers ever since.