Durham E-Theses On some ancient and medieval roots of George Berkeley's thought Bradatan, Costica How to cite: Bradatan, Costica (2003) On some ancient and medieval roots of George Berkeley's thought, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4077/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk ON SOME ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ROOTS OF GEORGE BERKELEY'S THOUGHT A thesis submitted by Costica Bradatan in accordance with the requirements of the University of Durham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy April 2003 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Declaration I declare that no part of this work has been submitted by me for any degree in this or any other university. All the work presented was conducted by me, except where otherwise stated in the text. Costica Bradatan The copyright of this thesis rests upon the author. No quotation from it should be published without prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Contents Abstract 1 Acknowledgments 2 Chapter One: Introduction 3 1.1. The objective, character, and structure of the present work 3 1.1.1. The objective 3 1.1.2. The character 7 1.1.3. The structure 8 1.2. Dealing with the (philosophical) past 10 1.2.1. The past and our knowledge of it 10 1.2.2. Philosophy and the history of philosophy 13 Chapter Two: George Berkeley and the Platonic tradition 19 2.1. Platonism in Berkeley's early philosophical writings 19 2.1.1. Defining the Platonic tradition 19 2.1.2. Seeing Berkeley as a Platonist 22 2.1.3. The likeness relationship: the human mind - the divine mind 23 2.1.4. The archetypes 28 2.1.5. "The two worlds" 33 2.1.6. "The book of the world" 36 2.2. Platonism in Siris 38 2.2.1. Preliminary remarks 38 2.2.2. In search for a primordial wisdom 39 2.2.3. Berkeley's case 44 2.2.4. Berkeley's library 47 Chapter Three: George Berkeley and the liber mundi tradition 50 3.1. Liber mundi from St. Paul to modern times 51 3.1.1. The theological grounding of the liber mundi 51 3.1.2. Medieval philosophy and the topic of the liber mundi 58 3.1.3. Everything is a book 62 3.2. George Berkeley's "universal language of nature" 65 3.2.1. In search for a tradition 65 3.2.2. The world as a divine language: how it works and for whom 68 3.2.3. "Le grand livre de la nature" and the world as a machine 73 3.2.4. Berkeley's "pragmatism" 75 3.2.5. Concluding remarks 78 Chapter Four: George Berkeley and the alchemic tradition 83 4.1. The search for the Elixir Vitae 84 4.1.1. Siris: a peculiar philosophical writing 84 4.1.2. Lapisphilosophorum as a universal medicine 87 4.1.3. Lapis philosophorum as a symbol of salvation 90 4.2. "The Great Chain of Being" 95 4.2.1. Preliminary remarks 95 4.2.2. "The Great Chain of Being" in alchemy 97 4.2.3. "The Great Chain of Being" in Sim 99 4.3. Alchemy as a "perennial wisdom" 103 4.3.1. The alchemy revisited 103 4.3.2. Berkeley's use of alchemy 106 Chapter Five: Philosophy as apologetics 112 5.1. Fighting against atheism 113 5.1.1. In search for a framework: relationship philosophy-religion 113 5.1.2. The philosopher's mission 118 5.1.3. Either God or matter 120 5.2. Fighting against free-thinking 123 5.2.1. Alciphron 123 5.2.2. Approaching free-thinking a la Voltaire 127 5.2.3. "The holy alliance" 132 5.2.4. The argument from utility 136 Chapter Six: George Berkeley's "Bermuda Scheme" 143 6.1. Between "earthly paradise" and educational Utopia 144 6.1.1. Berkeley's "happy island" 144 6.1.2. Berkeley's Utopia 149 6.1.3. The "incongruity" 154 6.2. Eschatology 156 6.2.1. The Millenarist context 156 6.2.2. Berkeley's messianism 160 6.3. Making some (philosophical) sense of the "Bermuda Scheme" 163 6.3.1. Philosophy and biography 163 6.3.2. Immaterial ism and utopianism 166 Chapter Seven: George Berkeley and the Catharism 170 7.1. TheCathars 171 7.1.1. The Cathar heresy 171 7.1.2. The "Prince of this world" 174 7.2. Berkeley's denial of the existence of matter 178 7.2.1. The problem 178 7.2.2. Matter and Evil 180 7.2.3. A broader framework 186 Conclusions 191 References 194 Appendix: "Waiting for the Eschaton. Berkeley's 'Bermuda Scheme' between Earthly Paradise and Educational Utopia" 211 Abstract of On Some Ancient and Medieval Roots of George Berkeley's Thought, a thesis submitted by Costica Bradatan for the degree of Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Durham, 2003 This thesis proposes a consideration of Berkeley's thought from the standpoint of its roots, rather than (which is the prevalent perspective in today's Berkeley scholarship) from the point of view of the developments that this thought has brought about in modern philosophy. Chapter One deals with a number of specific introductory issues, and then delineates a theoretical context within which my own approach will reveal its scholarly significance. In Chapter Two I advance the idea that there is in Berkeley's early writings an entire network of Platonic features, attitudes, and mind sets, prefiguring his speculative and openly Platonic writing Siris. Chapter Three is a systematic attempt at considering Berkeley's immaterialist philosophy in close connection to the topic of liber mundi, with the twofold objective of pointing out those of the medieval implications of the topic that Berkeley preserved, and the "novelties" he brought forth in his use of the topic. The central idea around which Chapter Four is clustered is that, in Siris, Berkeley comes to make use of one of the most ancient "spiritual techniques": alchemy. Berkeley's arguments and notions in Siris will be discussed by constant reference to alchemic notions, writings and authors. Chapter Five is an attempt at considering Berkeley's thought from the standpoint of the Christian apologetic tradition, and its objective is to show that one of the roots of Berkeley's thought could be found precisely in this tradition. In Chapter Six I will show that even when designing such a practical project as the "Bermuda scheme" Berkeley was under the modeling influence of the past. More precisely, the chapter purports to offer a discussion of Berkeley's "Bermuda scheme" in light of the Western representations of the "happy islands", "earthly paradise", "eschaton". The last chapter (Chapter Seven) purports to undertake a comparative analysis of some of the ideas professed by medieval Catharism, and George Berkeley's denial of the existence of matter. The central notion around which my comparative approach is articulated is the idea that, in both cases, matter is regarded as the source of evil. What I will try to show is that Berkeley's attitudes to the material world echoed certain Cathar theological anxieties and patterns of thought. 1 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people and institutions: David Cooper, for his kindness, patience, and generosity; my gratitude to him goes much beyond what could be said in this brief note; the University of Durham, the University of Durham's Department of Philosophy, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom, the Open Society Institute, and the Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation, for their important financial support; Martin Hughes, for his criticisms and advice, various other members of the Durham Department of Philosophy for their advice; Kathleen and Jane for their kindness and permanent readiness to help. Previous versions of most of the chapters in this dissertation have been presented at conferences, workshops and symposia both in Europe (United Kingdom, Norway, The Netherlands, Hungary) and in the USA. I wish to thank those members of the audience who asked me questions about my presentations, and gave me valuable advice, comments and suggestions. Similarly, previous versions of most of the chapters have been, or will be, published in journal or themed volumes. I wish to thank the editors and anonymous referees of these journals and volumes for having read my papers, and for their valuable comments. Thanks to all these people, this dissertation is now better and more carefully articulated. 2 Chapter One: Introduction This introductory chapter has a twofold aim. In the first place, I will deal with a number of specific introductory issues: what are the primary objectives to be attained through this work, why these particular objectives rather than any others, what are the main guidelines and principles on which my approach is based, how is this work related to the existing scholarship, and what precisely a reader should not expect from this work.