The Man, the Myth, the Legend…
George Berkeley
George Berkeley was an Irish clergyman, but more importantly he was a great philosopher of his time. In fact, he is still considered by many reputable sources to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time. George Berkeley was also known as Bishop Berkeley, and even has a school named after him here in America: the very famous University of California: Berkeley. Studying and practicing under the philosophical school/tradition of Idealism (a form of philosophy that states that the nature of reality is based upon ideas, values and essences of objects and/or people), Berkeley’s is most known for his primary philosophical achievement of the advancement of the theory “immaterialism” (also known as or commonly referred to as “subjective idealism”). Immaterialism was explained in his dictum, “Esse est percipi” or translated to “To be is to be perceived”. It states that individuals are only able to directly know sensations and ideas of objects and/or people, but not abstractions such as “matter” (Popkin, 2008). His most widely-read works were and are A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in which the characters Hylas and Philonous represent John Locke and himself. Along a separate path but almost nearly as famous, was his publication of The Analyst, in which he questioned the foundations of infinitesimal calculus, and was later very influential in the development of not only mathematics, but in the applied fields of science and engineering as well (Flage, 2006).
He was born on March 12, 1685 and died at the age of 67 on January 14, 1753. Berkeley was in fact born at his family’s home in Dysart Castle, which is near Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland. He was born as the eldest son of father, William Berkeley- who was a cadet in the noble (royalty) family of Berkeley. He attended school at Kilkenny College and then shortly after...