About the Book
The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley is a compendious examination of a vast array of topics in the philosophy of George Berkeley (1685-1753), Anglican Bishop of Cloyne, the famous idealist and most illustrious Irish philosopher. Berkeley is best known for his denial of the existence of material substance and his insistence that the only things that exist in the universe are minds (including God) and their ideas; however, Berkeley was a polymath who contributed to a
variety of different disciplines, not well distinguished from philosophy in the eighteenth century, including the theory and psychology of vision, the nature and functioning of language, the debate over
infinitesimals in mathematics, political philosophy, economics, chemistry (including his favoured panacea, tar-water), and theology.
This volume includes contributions from thirty-four expert commentators on Berkeley's philosophy, some of whom provide a state-of-the-art account of his philosophical achievements, and some of whom place his philosophy in historical context by comparing and contrasting it with the views of his contemporaries (including Mandeville, Collier, and
Edwards), as well as with philosophers who preceded him (such as Descartes, Locke, Malebranche, and Leibniz) and others who succeeded him (such as Hume, Reid, Kant, and Shepherd).
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction, Samuel C. Rickless
2. Berkeley's Intellectual Background, Daniel E. Flage Metaphysics
3. Berkeley on Abstract Ideas and Abstraction, Martha Brandt Bolton 4. Berkeley on Ideas and Notions, James Hill 5. Berkeley's Arguments for Idealism, Benjamin Hill 6. Berkeley on Objections to Idealism, Georges Dicker
7. Berkeley on Materialism and Immaterialism, Melissa Frankel 8. Berkeley on Minds, Genevieve Migely 9. Berkeley on Qualities, Richard Glauser 10. Berkeley on God, Stephen H. Daniel 11. Berkeley's Theory of Language, Kenneth L. Pearce Epistemology
12: Berkeley on Common Sense, S. Seth Bordner
13. Berkeley's Natural Philosophy, Margaret Atherton 14. Berkeley on Perception, Keota Fields 15. Berkeley's Theory of Vision, Robert Schwartz 16. Berkeley on Mathematics, Douglas Jesseph 17. Berkeley on Chemistry, Luc Peterschmitt Value Theory
18. Berkeley on the Economics of Poverty, Marc A. Hight and Geoffrey S. Lea
19: Berkeley on Political Obligation, Nancy Kendrick
20. Berkeley's Theology, Timo Airaksinen Forebears, Contemporaries, and Successors
21. Berkeley and Irish Philosophy, Stefan Storrie
22: Berkeley and Descartes, Alan Nelson 23. Berkeley and Locke, Patrick J. Connolly 24. Berkeley and Malebranche, Sukjae Lee 25. Berkeley and Newton, Monica Solomon 26. Berkeley and Leibniz, Stephen Puryear 27. Berkeley and Mandeville, Mikko Tolonen 28. Berkeley and Shaftesbury, Laurent Jaffro 29. Berkeley and Collier, Tom Stoneham 30. Berkeley and Edwards, Antonia LoLordo 31. Berkeley and Hume, Jennifer Smalligan Maru%si? 32. Berkeley and Reid, Rebecca Copenhaver 33. Berkeley and Kant, Tim Jankowiak 34. Berkeley and Shepherd, Samuel C. Rickless
About the Author :
Samuel C. Rickless (Ph.D. UCLA, 1996) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California San Diego, and affiliate professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. He has authored three books (one on Plato, one on Berkeley, and one on Locke), co-edited two collections of articles (on the ethics of war and the ethics and law of omissions), and published over sixty articles and book chapters (some co-authored) on topics in ancient Greek
philosophy, early modern European philosophy, normative ethics, philosophy of law, and philosophy of language.
Review :
The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley stands out as an essential work tool for anyone who wants to deepen the study of his philosophy, beyond the school vision of the negation of the existence of matter... A very useful index closes the volume.
