Description
Book SynopsisGeorge Berkeley's doctrine of notions is often disparaged or dismissed. In a systematic interpretation and positive reconstruction of the doctrine, James Hill presents Berkeley's understanding of the inner sphere and self-awareness, and reassesses the widely held view of Berkeley as an empiricist. Examining the development of Berkeley's philosophy from the early notebooks to the late
Siris, Hill sets out how knowledge by notion involves a radical rejection of the perceptual model of self-cognition and of the attempt to frame our knowledge of the inner by analogy with the outer. He points to Berkeley's divergence from the assumption among rationalists and empiricists that we know our selves and our mental acts by idea, or by an immediate presentation before the mind. Weaving together Berkeley's conception of the intellect, conceptual thought, mathematics, ethics and theology in the light of the doctrine of notions, Hill invites us to treat Berkeley's philosophy of mind as disti
Trade ReviewThe Notions of George Berkeley is a major event in Berkeley studies. For no commentator before Hill has gotten as close to Berkeley on this crucial subject, or shown how encompassing it is in Berkeley’s philosophy. * David Berman, Emeritus Fellow and Professor of Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland *
A textually moored, historically contextualized and philosophically sophisticated reconstruction of Berkeley's puzzling doctrine of notions, our knowledge of ourselves, our acts, relations, number, virtue and God. Hill persuasively explains why Berkeley is part-empiricist and part-rationalist, and why his positive ontological views, not only his well-known immaterialism, deserve a closer look. * Samuel C. Rickless, Professor of Philosophy, University of California San Diego, USA *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Berkeley’s Predecessors on Self-Knowledge 3. A Notion of an Active Self 4. Notions and Innatism 5. Sense Perception: A Passive or an Active Power? 6. Berkeley’s Conceptual Dynamism 7. A Notion of Goodness 8. Number and the Notion of God Notes Bibliography Index
