"Stephen Daniel presents a study of the philosophy of George Berkeley in the intellectual context of his times, with a particular focus on how, for Berkeley, mind is related to its ideas. Daniel does not assume that thinkers like Descartes, Malebranche, or Locke define for Berkeley the context in which he develops his own thought. Instead, he indicates how Berkeley draws on a tradition that informed his early training and that challenges much of the early modern thought with which he is often associated. Specifically, this book indicates how Berkeley's distinctive treatment of mind (as the activity whereby objects are differentiated and related to one another) highlights how mind neither precedes the existence of objects nor exists independently of them. This distinctive way of understanding the relation of mind and objects allows Berkeley to appropriate ideas from his contemporaries in ways that transform the issues with which he is engaged. The resulting insights-for example, about how God creates the minds that perceive objects-are only now starting to be fully appreciated"-- Provided by publisher

zlib/Society, Politics & Philosophy/European & American Philosophy/Stephen H. Daniel/George Berkeley and Early Modern Philosophy_118303034.pdf

Daniel, Stephen H.

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

German Historical Institute London

OUP Oxford

First edition, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2021

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Oxford University Press USA, Oxford, 2021

1, US, 2021

producers:
Acrobat Distiller 9.4.5(Windows)

Cover 1
George Berkeley and Early Modern Philosophy 4
Copyright 5
Contents 6
Preface 8
Acknowledgments 10
List of Abbreviations 12
Introduction: How Berkeley’s Works Are Interpreted 14
Historiographic Presuppositions 14
A Preview of my Chapters 24
1: Berkeley’s Stoic Notion of Spiritual Substances 26
The Stoic Context 29
Mind as the Active Principle of Ideas 39
2: The Ramist Context of Berkeley’s Philosophy 50
Dialectic Discovery 51
Dialectic Disposition 59
Ramism at Berkeley’s Trinity College Dublin 64
3: Berkeley, Suárez, and the Esse–Existere Distinction 69
Suárez and Being 70
Berkeley on Spirit, Mind, Soul 76
4: Berkeley on Representation 80
Resemblance and Representation 81
Refuting the Myth of the Given 84
Particles and the Will to Differentiation 88
5: Berkeley and Descartes on Mind 93
Mind as Principle of Meaning, Not Abstract Substance 95
The Linguistic Character of Mind 99
Berkeley and Descartes on How Perception Is Active 102
Minds, Animals, and Immortality 107
6: Berkeley and Hobbes 117
Berkeley’s Interest in the Hobbes–Descartes Exchange 118
Hobbes and Berkeley on Conscience 128
7: Berkeley and Arnauld on Ideas 135
Arnauld’s “Thoughts” 136
“Spirit and Idea” in Thought: Berkeley’s Similarity to Arnauld 140
8: Berkeley and Spinoza 147
Bergson and Peirce on the Spinoza–Berkeley Connection 148
Will as the Defining Feature of Extended Substance 152
9: Berkeley’s Christian Neoplatonism and Malebranchean Divine Ideas 158
The Trinitarian Account of Mind 159
Divine Ideas and Malebranche 165
10: Berkeley and Malebranche on Human Freedom 177
The Efficacy of the Will, the Constitution of the Self 179
The Intrinsic Link between Volitions and their Effects 185
11: Berkeley and Locke’s Substance–Person Distinction 191
Berkeley’s Merging of Substance and Person 193
Locke’s Separation of Person and Substance 197
12: Berkeley’s Appropriation of Bayle’s Constitutive Skepticism 202
Bayle’s Positive Contribution 203
13: The Harmony of the Leibniz–Berkeley Juxtaposition 208
The Similarity of Stances 210
Phenomenalistic Stances 215
The Metaphysical Character of Infinite Divisibility 222
14: Berkeley on God 232
The Continuity and Passivity Arguments for God’s Existence 233
The Demonstrative Deduction of the Existence of God 239
The Inherent Infinity of Divine Perception 242
15: Berkeley’s Pantheistic Discourse 250
God as Space 252
The Subsistence of Substance 256
16: Berkeley on God’s Knowledge of Pain 263
Divine Perception 265
God’s Comprehension of Pain 268
17: Berkeley, Browne, and Collins: The Rejection of Divine Analogy 274
King and Browne 275
Berkeley’s Resolution 279
Addendum on the Supposed “New Letter by Berkeley to Browne” 281
18: Berkeley, Edwards, and Ramist Logic 286
The Substance of Idealism 288
The Ramist Displacement of Idealism 294
Appendix 1: Berkeley’s Doctrine of Mind and the “Black List Hypothesis”: A Dialogue 304
Appendix 2: How Berkeley Redefines Substance: A Reply to My Critics 316
The Bundle Theory: John Roberts 317
The Threat to Freedom: Tom Stoneham 320
The Challenge to Tradition: Talia Mae Bettcher 321
Bibliography 326
Manuscripts 344
Index 346

Stephen Daniel presents a study of the philosophy of George Berkeley in the intellectual context of his times, focusing on how, for Berkeley, mind is related to its ideas. For Berkeley, mind neither precedes the existence of objects nor exists independently of them. Daniel shows how Berkeley transformed the issues with which he engaged.

2025-06-09