Description
Book SynopsisThe topic of George Berkeley and common sense is challenging: Berkeley claims that matter does not exist and at the same time he writes a whole book (
Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous) on how his system agrees with common sense. However, once we understand why he felt so confident that his immaterialism is not an affront to the plain man, we will get a better insight into the metaphysical system itself. The solution involves a more prominent role for science in immaterialism, which justifies the more revisionist aspects of the overall metaphysics, together with a new role of common sense in philosophy.
Berkeley was a successful scientist in his own right; his
Theory of Vision defined the topic of psychology of vision for the next two centuries. His metaphysics grows naturally out of his science, the crucial term idea being a psychological entity anchored in his theory of vision. At the same time, immaterialism is friendlier to the plain man in not redefinin
Table of ContentsContents: Berkeley’s Optics – Berkeley’s Common Sense – The Hidden Metaphor – Explicit and Implicit Common Sense – Modern Analogies of Implicit Common Sense – Epistemology in the Middle of the Twentieth Century – Idea and Thing – Continuity of Unperceived Objects – Continuity and God – How Does Berkeley Prove God Then?
