‘Berkeley in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is a simple and brief introduction to George Berkeley and his characteristic empiricism philosophy. Strathern write description about Berkeley’s two master pieces of philosophy and epistemology ‘An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision’ and ‘A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’ in the former half of this book. And I think Strathern successes explain Berkeley’s peculiar empiricist epistemology concisely. The later half of this book describes Berkeley’s academic and religious career, controversies about sciences, and his later life.
Strathern comments empiricist epistemology of Berkeley like below.
Berkeley ‘pointed out that we may derive our knowledge from our experience, but this consists only of sensations. We have no access to any underlying material substance which might give rise to these sensations. Despite its apparent absurdity, this argument is profound. It led Berkeley to his famous conclusion: else est percipi (to be is to be perceived). This triumphantly overcome materialism, but it left Berkeley with the problem of what happened to the world when no one was looking. As we have seen, Berkeley suggested that God is always looking. He derived this view from Malebranche, who held that change is not caused by objects interacting in cause and effect, but by the continuous action of God upon the world.’
Philosophical descriptions in this book is not many. But I recommend this book to absolute beginners in Berkeley and British empiricism. This book is a just introduction to peculiar philosophy of George Berkeley.
Berkeley in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)
Paul Strathern
Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 10 April 2000
87 pages $7.95
ISBN: 978-1-56663-291-1
Contents:
Introduction
Berkeley’s Life and Works
From Berkeley’s Writing
Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates
Chronology of Berkeley’s Life
Chronology of Berkeley’s Era
Recommended Reading
Index