BERKELEY, George, English philosopher and bishop: b. Kilcrin, Ireland, 12 March 1685; d. Oxford, 14 Jan. 1753. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took a keen interest in the philosophical problems then un der discussion. He received the degree of A.B. with honors in 1704, being afterward succes sively scholar and fellow. Almost immediately he began his career of authorship. He pub lished in 1709 his first important work, the 'New Theory of Vision,' which is the logical preliminary to his system and gives expression to certain of its fundamental pnnciples. A year later his philosophy finds complete statement in the 'Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.' During the next 15 years Berkeley advanced to a position of prominence in the English Church. In 1711, shortly after his ordination to the diaconate, he published his 'Discourse on Passive Obedience,' a treatise upon ethics, in which he develops a system of theological utilitarianism. The 'Dialogues,' published in 1711, presented his philosophy in literary form, clothing subtle argument in a garb of rhetorical beauty. In the years imme diately following, several new works appeared, accompanied by increasing fame and prosperity. He was appointed successively to the deaneries of Dromore and of Derry, the latter of which yielded a large income. But this he resigned in order to devote himself to a plan for the establishment of a college in the Bermudas, where the Indians of America were to be en lightened and christianized. For the further ance of such a plan he obtained a promise from the government for a grant of /20,000. Upon the strength_of this he sailed for America in 1728, accompanied by his wife and a few friends. They went first to Rhode Island, where they planned to await the expected grant. Here Berkeley purchased a farm and waited three years in quiet and study. Finally, upon the failure of the government to make good its promise, he was compelled to give up his cher ished plan and return to England in 1731. Soon after his return he was made bishop of Cloyne. During the remaining years of his life he pub lished a number of works upon philosophy, economics and other subjects. Notable among these were (Alciphron, or the Minute Philoso pher,' the result of his quiet studies in Rhode Island, and (Sirus,) a remarkable essay in i which the author interweaves his convictions concerning the healing properties of tar-water with the deepest and most profound of his philosophic reflections.
Although the representative English idealist, Berkeley proceeds in his thought from the empirical philosophy of Locke. It was Locke's contention that in knowledge we are concerned with our own ideas only, and that these ideas are derived entirely from experience. He made an important distinction among these ideas, however, with reference to their representation of objective or material reality. Ideas of color, sound, taste, etc., called secondary qualities, are subjective processes, and reveal nothing of the nature of material reality. But ideas of ex tension, figure, motion, etc., called primary qual ities, reveal directly the nature and constitution of that reality which exists without the mind in the material world. Berkeley agreed with Locke that we know only our own ideas, but he attacked vigorously this distinction between pri mary and secondary qualities. He maintained that ideas of primary qualities are wholly sub jective, and tell us no more of the nature of material reality than do our ideas of secondary qualities. He attempts a partial proof of this in his
custom with degrees of distance. Hence we have in this idea of distance no direct revela tion through vision of the nature of material reality. Rather we have the product of our own judgment, based upon sensations which have themselves no objective reference. So it is with other ideas of primary qualities which have been held to bring us into immediate con tact with material reality. In ideas of figure and motion we have sensations of light, color and strain, and the remainder is due to asso ciation and judgment. Thus Berkeley concludes that we have in visual ideas not a revelation of the nature of matter, but a universal lan guage of symbols whereby we interpret our sensations of touch, and so regulate our actions as to preserve and promote our lives. In his
Bibliography.— The best edition of Berke ley's works is that by Fraser (2d ed., Oxford 1902), containing a