George Berkeley Alciphron in Focus: (Philosophers in Focus)

The only available separate edition of Berkeley's text, this volume contains the four most important dialogues of George Berkeley's Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (1732) together with essays and commentaries from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Alciphron is Berkeley's most sustained work of philosophical theology. It also contains his final views of meaning and language, some of which (as Anthony Flew argues in his essay) anticipate those of Wittgenstein. In his introduction David Berman shows that Alciphron has a closer connection with Berkeley's Immaterialist philosophy than is generally thought. George Berkeley Alciphron in Focus will be of considerable interest to philosophy students, particularly those concerned with philosophy of religion and language. It will also be of interest to students in religious studies and intellectual history, since in Alciphron Berkeley develops one of the last great philosophical defences of religion as well as providing a shrewd account of the rise and nature of deism and atheism. This is the only available edition of Alciphron . It is also the only edition that, by including critical essays, assists the student to evaluate Alciphron's theoretical and historical importance.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, David Berman; Part 1 Alciphron, George Berkeley; The First Dialogue; The Third Dialogue; The Fourth Dialogue; The Seventh Dialogue; Chapter 1 From Divine Analogy(1733) pp. 475–9, 521–5, 537–40, Peter Browne; Chapter 2 ‘Additions and Corrections’ from Inquiry into Beauty and Virtue(4th Edn, 1738), Francis Hutcheson; Chapter 3 From Philosophical Works(1754), Vol. 1, pp. 176–81, Lord Bolingbroke; Chapter 4, J.S. Mill; Chapter 5 From English Thought in the Eighteenth Century(1876), Leslie Stephen; Chapter 6 Berkeley on Beauty, J.O. Urmson; Chapter 7 Berkeley’s Divine Language Argument, A. David Kline; Chapter 8 Cognitive Theology and Emotive Mysteries in Berkeley’s Alciphron, David Berman; Chapter 9 Was Berkeley a Precursor of Wittgenstein?, Antony Flew;

About the Author :
David Berman is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. His publications include A History of Atheism: From Hobbes to Russell (1990) and a number of works on Berkeley. He is editor of the Berkeley Newsletter.