George Berkeley ( BARK-lee; 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of immaterialism, a philosophical theory he developed which later came to be known as subjective idealism. He has also been called "the father of idealism" by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Berkeley played a leading role in the empiricism movement and was one of its pioneers. He was among the most cited philosophers of 18th-century Europe, and his works deeply influenced later thinkers such as Immanuel Kant and David Hume.
In 1709, Berkeley published his first major work An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, in which he discussed the limitations of human vision and advanced the theory that the proper objects of sight are not material objects, but light and colour. This foreshadowed his most well-known philosophical work A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, published in 1710, which, after its poor reception, he rewrote in dialogue form and published under the title Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in 1713. In this book, Berkeley's views were represented by Philonous (Greek: "lover of mind"), while Hylas ("hyle", Greek: "matter") embodies Berkeley's opponents, in particular John Locke.
Berkeley argued against Isaac Newton's doctrine of absolute space, time and motion in De Motu (On Motion), first published in 1721. His arguments were a notable precursor to those of Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein. In 1732, he published Alciphron, a Christian apologetic against the free-thinkers, and in 1734, he published The Analyst, a critique of the foundations of calculus, which was influential in the development of mathematics. In his work on immaterialism, Berkeley's theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the mind 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.
He died in 1753 in Oxford, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. Berkeley remains arguably the most influential of Irish philosophers, and interest in his ideas and works increased greatly after World War II because they tackled many of the issues of paramount interest to philosophy in the 20th century, such as the problems of perception, the difference between primary and secondary qualities, and the importance of language. Public interest in his views and philosophical ideas increased significantly in the United States during the early 19th century, and as a result, the University of California, Berkeley, the city of Berkeley, California, and Berkeley College, Yale, were all named after him.
Berkeley was born at his family home, Dysart Castle, near Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, the eldest son of William Berkeley, a cadet of the noble family of Berkeley whose ancestry can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period and who had served as feudal lords and landowners in Gloucestershire, England. Little is known of his mother. He was the oldest of six brothers.
He was educated at Kilkenny College and attended Trinity College Dublin. He was elected a Scholar in 1702. He was awarded BA in 1704 and MA and a Junior Fellowship in 1707. He remained at Trinity College after the completion of his degree as a librarian, lecturer in Greek language and preacher.
His earliest publication was on mathematics, but the first that brought him notice was his An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, first published in 1709. In the essay, Berkeley examines visual distance, magnitude, position and problems of sight and touch. While this work raised much controversy at the time, its conclusions are now accepted as an established part of the theory of optics.
He was ordained as a priest in 1710; however the Archbishop of Dublin (William King) had not been consulted about this, which led to a court case.
The next publication to appear was the Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge in 1710. His belief was that the physical world and material objects are merely collections of ideas, and that they only exist when they are perceived. This publication had great success and gave him a lasting reputation, though few accepted his theory that nothing exists outside the mind. This was followed in 1713 by Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous. This publication propound his system of philosophy, the leading principle of which is that the world, as represented by our senses, depends for its existence on being perceived.
For this theory, the Principles gives the exposition and the Dialogues the defence. One of his main objectives was to combat the prevailing materialism of his time. The theory was largely received with ridicule, while even those such as Samuel Clarke and William Whiston, who did acknowledge his "extraordinary genius," were nevertheless convinced that his first principles were false.
Shortly afterwards, Berkeley visited England and was received into the circle of Addison, Pope and Steele. In the period between 1714 and 1720, he interspersed his academic endeavours with periods of extensive travel in Europe, including one of the most extensive Grand Tours of the length and breadth of Italy ever undertaken. In 1721, he took Holy orders in the Church of Ireland, earning his doctorate in divinity, and once again chose to remain at Trinity College Dublin, lecturing this time in Divinity and in Hebrew. In 1721/2 he was made Dean of Dromore and, in 1724, Dean of Derry.
In 1723, Berkeley was named co-heir of Esther Vanhomrigh, along with the barrister Robert Marshall. This naming followed Vanhomrigh's violent quarrel with Jonathan Swift, who had been her intimate friend for many years. Vanhomrigh's choice of legatees caused a good deal of surprise since she did not know either of them well, although Berkeley as a very young man had known her father. Swift said that he did not grudge Berkeley his inheritance, much of which vanished in a lawsuit in any event. A story that Berkeley and Marshall disregarded a condition of the inheritance that they must publish the correspondence between Swift and Vanessa is probably untrue.
In 1725, Berkeley began the project of founding a college in Bermuda for training ministers and missionaries in the colony, in pursuit of which he gave up his deanery with its income of £1,100.
On 1 August 1728 at St Mary le Strand, London, Berkeley married Anne Forster, daughter of John Forster, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, and Forster's first wife Rebecca Monck. He then went to America on a salary of £100 per annum. He landed near Newport, Rhode Island, where he bought a plantation at Middletown – the famous "Whitehall". Berkeley purchased several enslaved Africans to work on the plantation. In 2023, Trinity College Dublin removed Berkeley's name from one of its libraries because of his slave ownership and his active defence of slavery.
It has been claimed that "he introduced Palladianism into America by borrowing a design from [William] Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones for the door-case of his house in Rhode Island, Whitehall". He also brought to New England John Smibert, the Scottish artist he "discovered" in Italy, who is generally regarded as the founding father of American portrait painting. Meanwhile, he drew up plans for the ideal city he planned to build on Bermuda. He lived at the plantation while he waited for funds for his college to arrive. The funds, however, were not forthcoming. "With the withdrawal from London of his own persuasive energies, opposition gathered force; and the Prime Minister, Walpole grew steadily more sceptical and lukewarm. At last it became clear that the essential Parliamentary grant would be not forthcoming", and in 1732 he left America and returned to London.
He and Anne had four children who survived infancy – Henry, George, William and Julia – and at least two others who did not. William's death in 1751 was a great cause of grief for his father.