George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
George Berkeley was an Anglo-Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop best known for his theory of immaterialism, sometimes called subjective idealism. His Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues argue that material objects exist only as perceptions in minds, summarized in the formula esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. Berkeley spent several years in Rhode Island promoting a planned college for the New World; the city of Berkeley, California, was later named after him. His thought significantly influenced both Hume and the development of British empiricism. He served as Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland from 1734 until his death.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Irish
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Empiricism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to George Berkeley:
“To be is to be perceived.”
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Attributed to George Berkeley:
“Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.”
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Attributed to George Berkeley:
“Few men think, yet all will have opinions.”
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Attributed to George Berkeley:
“All the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth, in a word, all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world, have not any subsistence without a mind.”
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Attributed to George Berkeley:
“It is impossible that I should conceive in my thoughts any sensible thing or object distinct from the sensation or perception of it.”