Berkeley's Principles and Dialogues

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-49806-7 - Berkeley’s Principles and Dialogues: Background Source Materials Edited by C. J. McCracken and I. C. Tipton Frontmatter More information

Berkeley’s Principles and Dialogues

background source materials

Edited by C. J. McCracken Michigan State University I. C. Tipton University of Wales Swansea

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-49806-7 - Berkeley’s Principles and Dialogues: Background Source Materials Edited by C. J. McCracken and I. C. Tipton Frontmatter More information

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City

Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521498067

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2000

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Berkeley’s Principles and Dialogues : backgrond source materials / edited by C.J. McCracken, I.C. Tipton. p. cm. – (Cambridge philosophical texts in context) Includes bibliographical references and index, ISBN 0-521-49681-0 (hbk) – ISBN 0-521-49806-6 (pbk.) 1. Berkeley, George, 1685–1753. Treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge. 2. Berkeley, George, 1685–1753. Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. 3. Knowledge, Theory of. 4. Idealism. 5. Soul. I. McCracken, Charles J. (Charles James), 1933– II. Tipton, I. C. III. Series. B1334 .B47 2000 192 – dc21 99-059435

isbn 978-0-521-49681-0 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-49806-7 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

Contents

Preface page ix Introduction 1

PART ONE: THE BACKGROUND TO BERKELEY’S PHILOSOPHY

I Rene´ Descartes 13 II Henricus Regius 26 III Nicolas Malebranche 29 IV Pierre de Lanion 55 V Antoine Arnauld 60 VI Jean Brunet 70 VII Pierre Bayle 76 VIII John Locke 90 IX Henry Lee 119 X John Norris 132 XI Arthur Collier 142

PART TWO: REACTIONS TO BERKELEY’S PHILOSOPHY

XII First Reactions 159 XIII Early Reviews 173

vii

viii contents

XIV G. W. Leibniz 191 XV Andrew Baxter 193 XVI David Hume 208 XVII Samuel Johnson 223 XVIII French Reactions 233 XIX German Reactions 252 XX Thomas Reid 268 XXI John Stuart Mill 279 Index of Names 295 Subject Index 299

Preface

The selections in this volume have been chosen because they either illuminate the background from which Berkeley’s philosophical views emerged or illustrate the reactions those views provoked, particularly in the eighteenth century. The explanatory commentaries that accompany the selections aim to show their relation to Berkeley’s views. We have modernized the spelling and punctuation of the selections from Henry Lee, John Norris, Arthur Collier, Andrew Baxter, and Samuel Johnson; those from Locke, Hume, Reid, and Mill follow various editions of their works. In the case of selections from works not originally in English, the translations we have used are noted; translations not attributed to others are our own. For permission to reprint certain materials, we are grateful to the following: Thomas M. Lennon and Paul J. Olscamp, for extracts from Malebranche’s Search after Truth; Edwin Mellen Press, for extracts from Arnauld’s On True and False Ideas; Simon and Schuster, for an extract from Arnauld’s The Art of Thinking; the editor of Hermathena, for extracts from Berkeley’s letters to Le Clerc; Oxford University Press, for extracts from Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding; Peter Gay, for an extract from Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary; and Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., for extracts from Bayle’s Historical and Critical Dictionary and Kant’s Prolego- mena to Any Future Metaphysics. For quotations from Berkeley, we have used The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, edited by A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop (Edin- burgh: Thomas Nelson, 1948–57), nine volumes. References to Works, followed by the volume number, are to this edition. The following abbreviations have also been used:

x preface

Principles,orPHK, for A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge; Dialogues,orThree Dialogues, for Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous; PC for Berkeley’s notebooks, the Philosophical Commentaries. Quotations from the Philosophical Commentaries preserve Berkeley’s idi- osyncratic punctuation, capitalization, etc. The responsibility for such ﬂaws as there may be in our translations, commentaries, or notes is of course entirely ours. However, there would have been more had it not been for generous help and advice we received from others. We therefore gratefully acknowledge advice or assis- tance we received from, among others, Anne and Bruce Freed, Rolf George, Douglas Jesseph, Michael Koppisch, Manfred Kuehn, Thomas Lennon, John Rauk, David Raynor, and Claudia Schmidt. We are particularly indebted to Katherine McCracken, who read the successive drafts of the manuscript and who made many valuable editorial sugges- tions. She and Diana Tipton have been supportive at every stage.