Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them March 12, 1955 Issue

George Berkeley, 1685-1753

[Mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 361: Retrospection and Introspection, p. 37: No and Yes, p. 22: Message to The Mother Church for 1901, pp. 23, 24; and Miscellany, p. 349]

George Berkeley entered into the metaphysical speculations of the 18th century while at Trinity College, Dublin, During his 13 years there as student, fellow, and tutor, he took holy orders and published his "Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge."

His philosophy was that nothing exists unless it is perceived, and that all we can prove is the existence of ideas. But for him ideas included sensory or corporeal objects. Abstract ideas he denied, since he did not conceive of them as concrete or particular.

He hoped that his philosophy would convince men that unconscious matter was not the cause of conscious life, for he believed that this theory was making men skeptics and atheists. When he saw that his Treatise was not attracting the attention he wished, he presented his ideas in "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," Hylas representing the materialist and Philonous the mind-lover. This manuscript Berkeley took to London for publication.

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