Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous (in Opposition to Skeptics and Atheists) - Softcover

Berkeley, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1618951440 ISBN 13: 9781618951441

Publisher: Bibliotech Press, 2014

Synopsis

George Berkeley also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory contends that individuals can only know directly sensations and ideas of objects, not abstractions such as "matter". The theory also contends that ideas are dependent upon being perceived by minds for their very existence, a belief that became immortalized in the dictum, "Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived"). His most widely-read works are A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous , in which the characters Philonous and Hylas represent Berkeley himself and his older contemporary John Locke.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This is a new critical edition of Berkeley’s 1734 (third edition, first 1713) Three Dialogues, a text that is deservedly one of the most challenging and beloved classics of modern philosophy. The heart of the work is the dispute between materialism and idealism, two fundamentally opposed positions that are embodied by Hylas and Philonous, the characters in this philosophical drama. The book is packed with brilliant arguments and counter-arguments of an extraordinarily sophisticated nature. Amid all this philosophical swordplay one would think that there could be scant room for the characters to develop any sort of personality. Yet in Berkeley’s hands, and with his literary gifts, the interlocutors are both vivid and funny.

The dialogue deals with some of the most important perennial problems of philosophy, including: the materialism-idealism dispute, skepticism in rationalist and empiricist epistemology, the conflict over apriorism and aposteriorism, rationalism versus empiricism, the existence and nature of God, the philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, abstract general ideas, the role of perception in human knowledge, and the metaphysics of causation.

This edition combines a usefully annotated version of Berkeley’s complete original text with a substantial critical introduction, a chronology of events in Berkeley’s life and career, and supplementary annotated appendices of original sources from thinkers relevant to Berkeley’s work.

About the Author:

The late Dale Jacquette was Senior Professorial Chair in Philosophy, Division for Logic and Theoretical Philosophy, at the University of Bern.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bibliotech Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1618951440
• ISBN 13: 9781618951441
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 118