Complementary Notions: A Critical Study of Berkeley’s Theory of Concepts

This volume grew out of work on Berkeley which was presented in a dissertation several years ago. Though now much revised and greatly expanded. particularly in respect of the theory of concepts, a good part of the present text rests on this earlier foundation. I therefore gladly take this opportunity to express my appreciation to my teachers both at Indiana University and at McGill, and especially to Professor Newton Stallknecht who directed my dissertation. For permission to quote from the Berkeley manuscripts in their keeping, I have first to thank the Trustees of the British Museum, and the Board of Trinity College Dublin. I wish further to thank the Bodleian Library, Oxford for allowing me to quote from their collection of Locke manu- scripts. Also I am grateful to the Editor of Filoso/ia for letting me use excerpts from an article that first appeared in the Stu'di Internazionali di Filoso/ia, and to George Allen and Unwin. Publishers, for permission to quote a long passage from Bertrand Russell's Analysis 0/ Mind. From thesis project to published book, my research on the Berkeley manuscripts has been made possible by the generous and timely support of the Canada Council. Finally. I wish to thank Mrs. Anne Hillier for preparing the manuscript with great patience and skill.

Table of Contents:
Introducation.- I — ‘Notions’ as the Counterpoise of ‘Ideas’.- 1. Coherence and Commonsense.- 2. The Philosophical Commentaries.- II — Ideas.- The Manuscripts.- Idea of : (Moore and Russell).- Defining Characteristics of Ideas.- Ideas and Things.- III — Minds.- Types of ‘Notions’.- Published Notions.- The Self.- Other Finite Spirits:.- Infinite Spirit:.- IV — Some Consequences:.- IV — Relations.- The Rôle of Relations, or Concepts.- The Introduction to the Principles of Human Knowledge — First Draft.- Some Variations: The Chapman MS.- Letters to Samuel Johnson.- Some Consequences.- V — Sensation and Space.- Kinds of Spaces.- Perceived Spaces and Concepts.- Extension and Divisibility.- VI — Other Berkeleyan Concepts.- Section I — Object and Likeness.- Section II — Identity and Time.- Section III — Numbering and Naming.- Appendix I — The history of the word ‘notion’ in Berkeley’s writings.- Appendix II — Structure of the Philosophical Commentaries.- Appendix III — Note on the marginal signs in the MS notebooks.