The Place of God in Berkeley's Philosophy

J. D. Mabbott

doi:10.1017/S0031819100044867

The Place of God in Berkeley's Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009

J. D. Mabbott

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Berkeley is commonly regarded as an idealist whose system is saved from subjectivism only by the advent of a God more violently ex machina than the God of any other philosopher. I hope to show that this accusation rests on a misunderstanding of his central theory, a misunderstanding which gives God a place both inconsistent with his main premisses and useless in his system. I hope also to display by quotation the real Berkeley, whose theory of God's place and nature is directly supported by argument and consistent with his premisses, and makes (with his account of self) a system which, if it is less than a completely coherent philosophy, is more than an episcopal assumption.

Type: Articles
Information: Philosophy , Volume 6 , Issue 21 , January 1931 , pp. 18 - 29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100044867 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1931

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^{page 18 note 1} C. i. 15.

^{page 18 note 2} P. § 45, i. 281.

^{page 18 note 3} C. i. 15. Cf. P. § 23. D. I, i. 411.

[All references axe to the Oxford Edition of Berkeley's Works (Ed. Campbell Fraser, 4 vols., 1901) C. = Commonplace Book. P. = Principles. D. = Dialogues.]

^{page 19 note 1} P. § 58, i. 290.

^{page 19 note 2} C. i. 65.

^{page 19 note 3} D. II, i. 424; Berkeley's italics. Cf. P. § 46.

^{page 19 note 4} P. § 7, i. 261.

^{page 19 note 5} D. III, i. 452.

^{page 19 note 6} Cf. i. 50, n. 4, 258, n. 3, 259, n. 5, and passim.

^{page 19 note 7} P. § 25, i. 271.

^{page 20 note 1} C. i. 83.

^{page 20 note 2} P. §§ 28, 29, i. 272–3.

^{page 20 note 3} D. II, i. 429.

^{page 20 note 4} P. § 29, i. 273.

^{page 20 note 5} P. § 30, i. 273.

^{page 20 note 6} C. i. 51. Cf. P. § 148.

^{page 20 note 7} C. i. 10.

^{page 20 note 8} p. § 2 8, i. 273.

^{page 20 note 9} C. i. 41.

^{page 21 note 1} C. i. 53.

^{page 21 note 2} C. i. 28. Cf. i. 52.

^{page 21 note 3} C. i. 60.

^{page 21 note 4} P. § 30, i. 273.

^{page 21 note 5} P. § 32, i. 274.

^{page 22 note 1} C. i. 61.

^{page 22 note 2} C. i. 58, accepting the view of Lorenz that p. 58 is Berkeley's earliest writing.

^{page 22 note 3} Letter to Percival, i. 353.

^{page 22 note 4} C. i. 42. Cf. D. Ill, i. 472, 3.

^{page 22 note 5} D. Ill, i. 459.

^{page 22 note 6} C. i. 51.

^{page 22 note 7} D. Ill, i. 457.

^{page 22 note 8} D.III, i. 459.

^{page 22 note 9} C. i. 52. Cf. i. 28.

^{page 23 note 1} C. i. 61.

^{page 23 note 2} C. i. 82.

^{page 23 note 3} C. i. 16.

^{page 23 note 4} P. § 53, i. 287. Cf. D.II, i. 427.

^{page 23 note 5} D.II, i. 432.

^{page 23 note 6} Ibid., 433.

^{page 23 note 7} C. i. 44, Cf. D.I, i. 383.

^{page 23 note 8} C. i. 91.

^{page 23 note 9} C. i. 9. Cf. D.III, i. 463, and especially i. 445. “… the real things are those very things I see and feel.”

^{page 23 note 10} C. i. 83.

^{page 23 note 11} P. § 87, i. 305–6. Cf. D.I, i. 382,418.

^{page 24 note 1} E.g. i. 10, 13, 37, 41, 271, 429.

^{page 24 note 2} This will be defended later. See Note at end.

^{page 24 note 3} C. i. 82.

^{page 24 note 4} D.II, i. 426.

^{page 24 note 5} D.III, i. 447.

^{page 24 note 6} P. § 70–75, i. 296 ff.

^{page 25 note 1} P. § 76, i. 300.

^{page 25 note 2} D.II, i. 434.

^{page 25 note 3} Letter to Johnson, quoted, ii. 19.

^{page 25 note 4} C. i. 10, quoted above.

^{page 25 note 5} C. i. 82.

^{page 25 note 6} C. i. 60.

^{page 25 note 7} C. i. 50. Italics in last three quotations mine.

^{page 25 note 8} C. i. 71.

^{page 26 note 1} C. i. 92.

^{page 26 note 2} i. 21, “improper. to make ourselves ideas, or thinking things ideas.”

^{page 26 note 3} C. i. 41.

^{page 26 note 4} i. 309, n. 2.

^{page 26 note 5} P. § 108, i. 317.

^{page 27 note 1} Alciphro IV. 10, ii. 168.

^{page 27 note 2} Op. cit., §§ 12, 13, ii. 386.

^{page 28 note 1} D. I l l, i. 458.

^{page 28 note 2} Cf. Caird on Kant, or Bosanquet on Plato.

^{page 28 note 3} P. § 75, quoted, p. 25.

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