George Berkeley

During the past thirty years Berkeley scholars and commentators have produced a flood of articles and books on almost every aspect and feature of Berkeley's work. There is, however, hardly any central aspect of Berkeley's theories about which commentators might be said to be in agreement: but it is not difficult to identify several kinds of dialectical development. Since the debate shows no signs whatsoever of abating, it will be extremely useful to the students of Berkeley to have a collection of the more significant articles in a convenient form, particularly since many of the recent articles are scattered over some fifty or sixty journals. These three volumes gather together eighty-six articles on the central issues of the philosophy of language, the theory of vision, qualities, general ideas, matter, the theory of mind and notions. The collection contains articles both harshly critical of Berkeley as well as those sympathetic with the philosopher's views, and there has been an attempt to balance the selection between the immaterialist and idealist theories. The editorial commentary leans towards reading Berkeley as fundamentally an empirical idealist with a strong reliance upon a form of phenomenonalism. The volumes will be of great value to graduate students and to anyone with a serious interest in Berkeley.