SOURCE: “The Origins of Berkeley's Thought,” in The Development of Berkeley's Philosophy, Russell & Russell, Inc., 1965, pp. 12-67.

In the following excerpt, Johnston discusses the experiences and influences that resulted in the formation of Berkeley's philosophical theories.

I. Philosophical and Religious Environment

It is the merest commonplace to say that every thinker owes much to his predecessors and contemporaries. His thought is consciously influenced by philosophers, scientists and moralists; and, in addition, it bears upon it the stamp of that subtler but none the less potent force, the social environment in which he lives. Berkeley is perhaps the freshest and most original thinker in the history of British philosophy; yet, more than any other, he was influenced both by his immediate philosophical predecessors and by the social surroundings in which he was placed. He was aware of his debt, though not, perhaps, of the full extent of it. “I...