The Philosopher George Berkeley and Trinity College Dublin the Next Hundred Years?
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The Philosopher George Berkeley and Trinity College Dublin The next hundred years? This Concept Paper makes the case for, provides the background of, and indicates a plan of action for, the continuation of Berkeley-studies at Trinity College Dublin. Berkeley, ‘top-ten’ philosopher and Trinity Alumnus In the name of George Berkeley (1685-1753), who was a student and scholar of the College before he became a lecturer and, in quick succession, one of its senior academics, Trinity is in the exceptional position of having among its Alumni a ‘top-ten’ philosopher. The College has, of course, other illustrious figures of the not-so-recent past, such as, for instance, the mathematician William Rowan Hamilton (who indeed had a special interest in Berkeley’s philosophy of science generally and mathematics in particular). But, whereas even the greatest scientists and mathematicians of the past are today no longer considered part of their subject in its present form and activity, philosophers of comparable status are more like great literary figures, and their work is, if anything, more alive today, and just as much part of present, cutting-edge developments in the subject, as are the best among the thinkers currently active around us. This is, precisely, true of the two claims which Berkeley introduced and with which his reputation, as the author of modern Idealism, is inseparably associated; namely, the denial of mind-independent matter and the affirmation that anything that exists is either a mind or something perceived by a mind. Not only do Berkeley’s two claims exercise a major force on, and are central contenders in, current debates, in philosophy primarily but also in science, about the nature of the world; anyone who is engaged seriously in these debates will, as a matter of course, think that the study of Berkeley’s arguments for these claims and against their main competitors, in the particular way in which these arguments are articulated in his works, is an integral part of this task. Berkeley studies in Trinity: between an impressive past and an uncertain future Looking back Trinity has a most impressive tradition and track-record in the study, both scholarly-historical and creatively-philosophical, of Berkeley. In fact it has an even longer, 1 and distinctive, tradition in the study of and engagement with the various forms of Idealism in philosophy; first of all Berkeley’s idealism, but also those varieties of idealism that Kant defended in response to Berkeley and Hegel defended in response to Kant. In the past hundred years, and still within living memory, this dates back to 1931, when A.A Luce, who had joined College as a lecturer already some years before the First World War, wrote his first piece on Berkeley. In the next half-century Luce was to establish himself as arguably the world’s leading authority on Berkeley, and to leave behind a monument of work, which includes, with T.E. Jessop, the now definitive edition of Berkeley’s works in nine volumes, and his magisterial biography of Berkeley . The interest in idealism at Trinity begins dramatically with Berkeley, whose writings mark the beginning of modern idealism. But it extends further, and, not least through Professor John Dillon (Regius Professor of Greek since 1980) and his ground-breaking work on later Platonism and especially on Plotinus and Plotinian idealism, right up to the present day. Almost twenty years ago John set up The Plato Centre at Trinity College Dublin, which, under its current directorship by John and Vasilis Politis, in its current premises since 2004, with its extensive library, and, above all, though its vibrant community of scholars (which includes PhD students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and staff from more than one department), is positively flourishing. The wider interest in idealism at Trinity is shown initially in two books by Trinity philosophers, both published in 1872. These are Thomas E. Webb’s Veil of Isis, essays in idealism, and Idealism: an Essay, Metaphysical and Critical, by William Graham, which is mainly on the idealism of Berkeley and Hegel. Coming closer to our own time, there is the work of Henry Macran, who wrote widely on Hegel, and was famous for his inspiring lectures on Hegel and the history of Philosophy. A student of both Macran and Luce, who wrote creatively on both Berkeley and Hegel, was the distinguished philosopher J. O. Wisdom. Luce’s scholarly work on Berkeley was continued by his student, E. J. Furlong. And in 1973 he published a notable article in Hermathena, on ‘Philosophy at Trinity College’, which is, in effect, an account of idealism in the College from the 1860s to the 1970s. In the 1960s, some ten years before passing away, Luce took on as a graduate student a young man from New York, David Berman. And earlier this year, on the occasion of Trinity Monday, the annual day in which Trinity commemorates its past, David, who retired only last year after almost half a century first as student, then as lecturer, finally as 2 professor, and who is a treasured presence in the Department of Philosophy and in College, gave a memorable and quite moving Discourse on Luce’s life and work. Professor Berman has for the past forty years carried and continued this tradition of Berkeley studies at the highest level in Trinity. In some respects, he has taken it further than did Luce. First, in addition to his substantial body of work specifically on Berkeley, David has dedicated a large part of his scholarly and historical efforts to situating Berkeley within a wider, and distinctively Irish, context of philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a context that includes such thinkers as Toland and Burke; and to understanding this group of Irish thinkers, and their influence on each other, also in the wider terms of politics and religion. For it is remarkable that Berkeley saw himself as an Irish thinker. Secondly, David has, in a highly distinctive and creative way, appropriated central elements of Berkeley’s thought, and, together with certain approaches in more recent empirical psychology and the history of philosophy, developed this into a distinctive type of philosophy, and psychology, in the idealist tradition – this being a major project on which he is still very much working. Looking ahead When David Berman retired in the summer of 2013, College was not in a position to fund a successor. And this means, in effect, that Trinity is not currently in a position to claim expertise on the greatest Irish philosopher and one of the greatest philosophers, past or present. This in spite of the fact that two of Professor Berman’s recent graduate students, Dr Stefan Storrie and Dr Thomas Curtin, are in the process of forming themselves into the next generation of notable Berkeley specialists; indeed they have already had some significant success, as they have both won the prestigious Colin and Alisa Turbayne International Berkeley Essay Prize. Whereas both Stefan and Thomas are currently teaching philosophy in College, they have been on one-year and part-time contracts; and it is doubtful whether, as things stand, we will be in a position to continue even this commitment. As a matter of priority and of some urgency, therefore, we need to ensure that the current situation amounts to no more than a short interruption in a long and impressive tradition of Berkeley studies at Trinity – a tradition that that we cannot, and entirely due to the force of current and hopefully transient circumstances, allow to end. 3 In this regard the Department of Philosophy has, with the support of the Provost and of the Long Room Hub, made some first efforts during the past academic year. In April we organized, under the auspices of the International Berkeley Society, the Royal Irish Academy and the Long Room Hub, a high-profile conference on Berkeley and the Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous – the tri-centennial of whose publication we also thus commemorated – with a most impressive line-up of speakers comprising leading Berkeley specialists from around the world. The papers from this conference are now in the process of being put together, by Dr Stefan Storrie as the editor, into a volume on the Three Dialogues to be published by Cambridge University Press. This was not only a major and thoroughly successful event in its own right, it was flanked, at the one-end, the Friday, with David Berman’s opening address, entitled ‘Irish Philosophy: past and future’, held in the Royal Irish Academy, addressed to a wider public, and extremely well-received by a full house; and, at the other end, the Monday, with David’s Discourse on A.A. Luce’s life and work, delivered on the occasion of Trinity Monday. At the close of the conference itself, and entirely unsolicited, Professor Stephen Daniel from Texas, speaking as the President of The International Berkeley Society, made an impassioned plea for the continuation of Berkeley studies in Berkeley’s alma mater and pledged the support of the IBS to this end. Drawing up a plan of action It requires only a moment’s reflection to recognize that Trinity can re-claim expertise on Berkeley, at a level appropriate to this figure and this field of study, only if it re-establishes among its teaching and research staff a suitable specialist; and a person with sufficient authority, standing in, and commitment to, College to be in a position to take basic and necessary steps. At the same time, it can be argued that, by itself, the hiring of a Berkeley specialist is not the best way forward.