A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
Also known as Principles of Human Knowledge
George Berkeley's 1710 argument that the world consists only of minds and the ideas they perceive.
At a glance
Key ideas
To be is to be perceived, No abstract ideas, Primary qualities are mental too …
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George Berkeley and John Locke
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- Berkeley argues that to exist is to be perceived: people know ideas, not material objects.
- He rejects Locke's view that primary qualities such as shape and motion exist in unperceiving matter.
- Ideas can resemble only other ideas, so the external world is made of ideas, not matter.
- Its order comes from God, whose perception keeps things in existence when no one is looking.
Why it matters
- His most well-known philosophical work, written largely against Locke; it set out the immaterialism that the Three Dialogues later defended.
Key facts
- Author
- George Berkeley1
- Published
- 17101
- Part II
- Never published; only Part I exists1
- Rewritten as
- Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, 17132
Key ideas
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To be is to be perceived1
Existence means being perceived by a perceiver; this is the main principle of human knowledge.
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No abstract ideas1
The mind cannot conceive abstract ideas, and words do not signify them.
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Primary qualities are mental too1
Shape, motion and number exist only in the mind, like colour and taste.
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Ideas resemble only ideas1
An idea cannot be a copy of something unperceivable.
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God and duty1
Berkeley said the book's main design was to promote the "Consideration of GOD, and our DUTY".
Connections
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