Book 3: Chapter 16, Berkeley Summary and Analysis

George Berkeley (1685-1753) was an Irishman and had significant achievements in philosophy pertaining to the negation of the existence of matter. He thought that objects existed only when they were observed. Objects that were out of our field of perception failed to exist.

At the age of twenty two he became a Fellow of the Trinity College in Dublin. Swift presented him at court and he went to America with his project for a college in the Bermudas. He spent some time in Rhode Island, came home, and wrote "A New Theory of Vision' in 1709, "The Principles of Human Knowledge" in 1710, "The Dialogues of Hylas" and "Philonous" in 1713. His later writings were less significant.

He argued against matter in "The Dialogues of Hylas" and "Philonous", presenting arguments that reality was mental but, in fact, proving that we...