George Berkeley
Sensible things exist only by being perceived: there is no matter behind our ideas, only minds.
Life
George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Irish philosopher and bishop of Cloyne. He argued that sensible things exist only by being perceived and that there is no matter behind our ideas, only minds and God who sustains them. His position, immaterialism, has had a lasting influence on thinking about perception and the reality of the external world.
Main works
Sets out immaterialism: for a sensible thing, to exist is to be perceived.
Presents in dialogue form the defence of immaterialism against scepticism.
Shows that distance and depth are learned through experience rather than seen directly.
In his own words
« the existence of an idea consists in being perceived »
« Their esse is percipi, nor is it possible they should have any existence out of the minds or thinking things which perceive them. »
« a spirit has been shown to be the only substance or support wherein unthinking beings or ideas can exist »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceGod, an infinite mind, continually causes the ideas we perceive, and so sustains the world.
Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713)
All our knowledge of things comes from the ideas given by the senses; to be is to be perceived.
Berkeley, A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
He presents his view as the cure for skepticism: if things are ideas, we cannot be cut off from them.
Berkeley, A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Introduction and §§86-88 (1710)
Only minds and their ideas exist; matter does not. This is idealism, not matter-mind dualism.
Berkeley, A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
Minds are active and the source of their own acts, so we are free agents responsible for what we do.
Berkeley, A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, §§27-28, 145 (1710)