George Berkeley Quotes


Nothing can be plainer, than that the motions, changes, decays, and dissolutions, which we hourly see befall natural bodies (and which is what we mean by the course of nature), cannot possibly affect an active, simple, uncompounded substance: such a being therefore is indissoluble by the force of nature, that is to say, the soul of man is naturally immortal.


Citations

Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Aaron Rhames, 1710, Part 1, sect. 141.

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George Berkeley
George Berkeley
  • Born: March 12, 1685
  • Died: January 14, 1753
  • Nationality: Irish
  • Profession: Philosopher

George Berkeley – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – 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 denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the minds and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism.