Brandeis University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1970
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America
  •  42
    Hume Studies Referees, 2006–2007
    with Tom Beauchamp, Deborah Boyle, Emily Carson, Dorothy Coleman, Angela Coventry, Shelagh Crooks, Remy Debes, Georges Dicker, and Paul Draper
    Hume Studies 33 (2): 385-387. 2007.
  •  49
  •  2
    This chapter discusses the work of Margaret Cavendish (1623‐73), Anne Conway (1631‐79), Damaris Cudworth Masham (1659‐1708), Mary Astell (1666‐1731), and Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679‐1749).
  •  1
    The Second Dialogue at first reading looks like something of a mixed bag. As the Dialogue begins, Hylas contributes one further reason for accepting his belief that to exist is one thing and to be perceived is another. Philonous's claim is that philosophers who insist on the absolute existence of sensible things are the ones who threaten men of sense with skepticism. Hylas is prepared to accept God as the ultimate cause of our ideas, but he is unwilling to concede that God is the only cause of o…Read more
  •  2
    Principles of Human Knowledge
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    Berkeley begins his discussion of the consequences of his principles negatively, by identifying a rival principle, one that has adverse consequences for human knowledge. About natural philosophers, Berkeley wants it to be known that they are the worst offenders when it comes to encouraging scepticism. This is because they have added what amounts to a new principle to a general mistrust of the senses engendered by the twofold existence principle. Berkeley attributes the error philosophers have fa…Read more
  •  2
    In Hylas's first attempt to retrieve his original intuition he tries to repair matters by offering a more complicated account of what a perception is. He is not quarreling with the position that the understanding of the world begins with having perceptions, but he does want to maintain that perceptions can consist of two elements, what Hylas calls an object and a sensation. Hylas calls himself a “thinking being” but one who is affected by sensations. Berkeley concludes the First Dialogue with a …Read more
  •  4
    The First Dialogue of Three Dialogues covers a lot of ground. It introduces the two characters of the Dialogues, lays down the issue to be discussed, and, by means of the conversation, wrings from Hylas two important concessions. Hylas, who is apparently accustomed to sleeping in, opens the dialogue by revealing that he is up early due to a problem on his mind arising from a late night discussion. Philonous responds with a flowery and enthusiastic account of the beauties of nature to be enjoyed …Read more
  •  4
    Principles of Human Knowledge
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    Since replying to objections is a familiar philosophical practice, there is nothing very surprising about the presence of such replies here in the Principles of Human Knowledge. The author of the objections is George Berkeley and he decided which objections to answer and in what order they would appear. Berkeley points out that on his criterion, an idea of a thing that is extended, solid, and heavy will be the idea of a real thing. Berkeley says that extension belongs to mind because it exists w…Read more
  •  1
    Principles of Human Knowledge
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    In precisely 33 paragraphs that begin his Principles of Human Knowledge George Berkeley lays out the argument that establishes his position. There are strong reasons for adopting “immaterialism” as the name for Berkeley's theory. Another term frequently used in connection with Berkeley is “idealism”. This term too has a lengthy pedigree: Kant referred to Berkeley as a Dogmatic Idealist. Berkeley does go on to offer an elucidation of what it means to say that spirit is the only substance, but he …Read more
  •  3
    Principles of Human Knowledge
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    George Berkeley's arguments have attracted a good deal of attention, but the account of abstraction has been often treated as if it were an entirely independent piece of writing. Berkeley links Locke's use of abstract general ideas to a belief in the possibility of an idea of existence abstracted from perception, that is, to the central issue of the Principles of Human Knowledge. The mistake Berkeley has been pointing to, the reliance on abstract general ideas, is a philosophical mistake, but he…Read more
  • Taking Stock
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    Berkeley published the New Theory in 1709, the Principles in 1710, and Three Dialogues in 1713. These three books, while differing from one another in form and in content, nevertheless display considerable overlap with one another, covering much the same ground. There is no reason to regard the use Berkeley makes of idealism and claims based on idealism to be significantly different in the New Theory from the other works, and the conclusions he draws there are similar to those of the later works…Read more
  •  8
    An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    George Berkeley's first published work, An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision was prepared simultaneously with his second, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. In the New Theory, Berkeley argues that visual objects are in the mind, mind‐dependent ideas, but he appears to leave tactile objects outside the mind in mind‐independent space. The position the New Theory refutes is not the one that Berkeley identifies as causing problems for the Principles. But he still sees the Ne…Read more
  • Berkeley's Life and Work
    In Berkeley, Wiley. 2019.
    George Berkeley was born on 12 March 1685 in Ireland, in or near Kilkenny. Berkeley's education began in Kilkenny, at the Duke of Ormonde's school. Berkeley took his BA in 1704 and, while waiting for a fellowship vacancy, worked on some mathematical issues, the results of which he published in 1707 as Arithmetica and Miscellanea Mathematica. In 1709, he published his first significant work, An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, rapidly followed in 1710 by A Treatise Concerning the Principles …Read more
  •  1
    In the first few pages of the Third Dialogue, several interesting things happen that provide a framework for this final dialogue. The first is that Hylas embraces skepticism with noticeable fervor. At the beginning of the Third Dialogue, Hylas is ripe for the kind of skepticism to which philosophers fall prey. Philonous's reply to the annihilation objection does depend, however, on a claim he has made previously, that sensible things that are independent of my mind must depend on God's mind, for…Read more
  •  79
  •  39
    The Measurement of Sensation (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 69 (14): 422-427. 1972.
  •  4
    Berkeley
    Wiley. 2018.
    Presents a concise and comprehensive analysis of George Berkeley’s thought and the impact of his intellectual contributions to philosophy In this latest addition to the Blackwell Great Minds series, noted scholar of early modern philosophy Margaret Atherton examines Berkeley’s most influential work and demonstrates the significant conceptual impact of his ideas in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion. A concise and rigorous primer on Berkeley’s essential writings and contributions to moder…Read more
  •  28
    Locke on Persons and Personal Identity
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 101 (1): 247-247. 2023.
    Ruth Boeker’s Locke on Persons and Personal Identity is a tightly argued and illuminating account, containing much to ponder. The presence of both terms, ‘persons’ and ‘personal identity’, in the t...
  •  15
    This book, a collection of articles on women's contributions to the history of philosophy, can accurately be described as long-awaited. Originally conceived in, I gather, roughly its present form in 2006, it is now finally in 2019 reaching the light of day. Although unavoidable delays are always a pity, in this case the result is certainly worth the wait, and the significantly high quality of the volume has not been undercut by its belated appearance. In 2006, the editors secured contributions f…Read more
  •  10
    Berkeley by George Pitcher (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 76 (1): 42-52. 1979.
  •  35
    Education and the Development of Reason (review)
    Journal of Philosophy 72 (4): 104-106. 1975.
  •  40
    Not long ago, historians of philosophy realized with some excitement the canonical texts of the early modern period could be rendered increasingly intelligible if they were read not as discussing a series of atemporal “purely philosophical” questions, but as embedded in the issues raised by contemporaneous events such as the scientific revolution. To take an often-discussed example, it was hoped that, so contextualized, Locke’s notoriously puzzling distinction between primary and secondary quali…Read more
  •  16
    Berkeley’s Three Dialogues: New Essays ed. by Stefan Storrie
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (1): 172-173. 2019.
    This book is, as the editor claims, the first collection of essays dedicated to Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. It also derives largely from a conference held at Trinity College, Dublin in 2014. The editor, therefore, was somewhat at the mercy of those who submitted papers to the conference to determine the contents of the volume. In pointing this out, I do not intend to be casting aspersions on the quality of the papers included. By and large, the contributors are among …Read more
  •  2
    Berkeley: langage de la perception et art de voir (edited book)
    with Dominique Berlioz
    Presses Universitaires de France - PUF. 2003.
    Deux innovations caractérisent la philosophie de Berkeley : il met la perception au centre de sa théorie de l'être (esse est percipi out percipere) et il lie étroitement vision et langage, en affirmant que les idées de la vue constituent un " langage universel de l'Auteur de la nature ". Ces deux innovations continuent à nourrir la philosophie contemporaine, en particulier certains aspects de la philosophie analytique. C'est pourquoi, il est essentiel d'examiner à nouveaux frais les questions co…Read more
  •  1
    Berkeley's last word on spirit'
    In Petr Glombíček & James Hill (eds.), Essays on the Concept of Mind in Early-Modern Philosophy, Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 115--30. 2010.