“A Notion of the True System of the World”: Berkeley and his Use of Plato in Siris
-
Peter D. Larsen
Abstract
This paper considers Berkeley’s use of Plato in Siris. Berkeley’s engagement with ancient thinkers in Siris has been a source of puzzlement for many readers. In this paper I focus on Siris § 266. In particular, I consider why Berkeley says of the Platonists that they “distinguished the primary qualities in bodies from the secondary” and why, given his own well-known misgivings about the distinction, he characterizes this as part of a “notion of the true system of the world.” I argue that in Siris Berkeley accepts a distinctive form of corpuscularianism, and that he thinks a distinction between primary and secondary qualities follows from this. I further argue that in § 266, and elsewhere in Siris, Berkeley engages in a careful reading of Plato’s Timaeus, which he uses to bolster his defense of the compatibility between corpuscularianism and his immaterialist idealism.
Baltes, M. 1972. Timaios Lokros über die Natur des Kosmos und der Seele. Leiden.10.1163/9789004320413Suche in Google Scholar
Banner, N. 2018. Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus. Cambridge.10.1017/9781316650790Suche in Google Scholar
Berkeley, G. 1948–57. The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. Ed. A. A. Luce/T. E. Jessop, 9 vols. London.Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, S. 2008. “Leibniz and Berkeley: Platonic Metaphysics and the Mechanical Philosophy.” Platonism at the Origins of Modernity: Studies in Platonism and Early Modern Philosophy. Ed. D. Hedley/S. Hutton. Dordrecht, 239–53.10.1007/978-1-4020-6407-4_16Suche in Google Scholar
Burnyeat, M. F. 1979. “Conflicting Appearances.” Proceedings of the British Academy 65, 69–111.10.1017/CBO9780511974052.014Suche in Google Scholar
–. 1982. “Idealism and Greek Philosophy: What Descartes Saw and Berkeley Missed.” The Philosophical Review 91, 3–40.10.1017/CBO9780511974052.013Suche in Google Scholar
Corcilius, K. 2018. “Ideal Intellectual Cognition in Timaeus 37a2–c5.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 54, 51–105.10.1093/oso/9780198825128.003.0003Suche in Google Scholar
Cornford, F. M. 1935. Plato’s Cosmology. London.10.4324/9781315822938Suche in Google Scholar
Cudworth, R. 1678. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part Wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted and its Impossibility Demonstrated. London, Printed for Richard Royston.10.1037/14226-000Suche in Google Scholar
Daniel, S. H. 2018. “Berkeley on God’s Knowledge of Pain.” In Berkeley’s Three Dialogues: New Essays. Ed. S. Storrie. Oxford, 136–45.10.1093/oso/9780198755685.003.0009Suche in Google Scholar
Downing, L. 1995. “Siris and the Scope of Berkeley’s Instrumentalism.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 3, 279–300.10.1080/09608789508570918Suche in Google Scholar
–. 2005. “Berkeley’s Natural Philosophy and Philosophy of Science.” In The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley. K. P. Winkler. Cambridge, 230–65.10.1017/CCOL0521450330.009Suche in Google Scholar
–. 2018. “Sensible Qualities and Secondary Qualities in the First Dialogue.” In Berkeley’s Three Dialogues: New Essays. Ed. S. Storrie. Oxford, 7–23.10.1093/oso/9780198755685.003.0002Suche in Google Scholar
Garber, D. 1985. “Locke, Berkeley, and Corpuscular Scepticism.” In Berkeley: Critical and Interpretive Essays. Ed. C. M. Turbayne. Minneapolis, MN, 174–96.Suche in Google Scholar
Gerson, L. P. 2013. From Plato to Platonism. Ithaca, NY.10.7591/cornell/9780801452413.003.0004Suche in Google Scholar
Johansen, T. K. 2004. Plato’s Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511518478Suche in Google Scholar
Krizan, M. 2018. “Primary Qualities and Aristotle’s Elements.” Ancient Philosophy 38, 91–112.10.5840/ancientphil20183816Suche in Google Scholar
Lee, M.-K. 2011. “The Distinction Between Primary and Secondary Qualities in Ancient Greek Philosophy,” in L. Nolan (ed.), Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 15–40.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556151.003.0002Suche in Google Scholar
Locke, J. 1975. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. P. H. Nidditch. Oxford.10.1093/oseo/instance.00018020Suche in Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. 1995. Locke: On Human Understanding. London.Suche in Google Scholar
Mackie, J. L. 1976. Problems from Locke. Oxford.10.1093/0198750366.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
McCann, E. 1994. “Locke’s Philosophy of Body.” In The Cambridge Companion to Locke. Ed. V. Chappell. Cambridge, 56–88.10.1017/CCOL0521383714.004Suche in Google Scholar
Moked, G. 1988. Particles and Ideas: Bishop Berkeley’s Corpuscularian Philosophy. Oxford.Suche in Google Scholar
Rickless, S. C. 2013. Berkeley’s Argument for Idealism. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669424.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Roberts, J. R. 2010. “A Mystery at the Heart of Berkeley’s Metaphysics.” Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 5, 214–46.Suche in Google Scholar
Silverman, A. 1991. “Plato on Phantasia.” Classical Antiquity 40, 123–47.10.2307/25010944Suche in Google Scholar
Taylor, A. E. 1928. A Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. Oxford.Suche in Google Scholar
Wilson, M. D. 1985. “Berkeley and the Essence of the Corpuscularians.” In Essays on Berkeley: A Tercentenial Celebration. Ed. J. Foster/H. Robinson. Oxford, 131–48.Suche in Google Scholar
Winkler, K. P. 1989. Berkeley: An Interpretation. Oxford.10.1093/0198235097.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Zeyl, D. 2000. Plato. Timaeus. Translated with Introduction. Indianapolis, IN.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- The Learner’s Motivation and the Structure of Habituation in Aristotle
- Aristotle on How Pleasure Perfects Activity (Nicomachean Ethics x.5 1175a29-b14): The Optimising-View
- Ethics as Medicine: Moral Therapy, Expertise, and Practical Reasoning in al-Ghazālī’s Ethics
- Der kosmologische Gottesbeweis des Ralph von Battle. Rekonstruktion, Kritik und Einordnung
- “A Notion of the True System of the World”: Berkeley and his Use of Plato in Siris
- Leibniz on the Grounds of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- Book Reviews
- Reydams-Schils, Gretchen, Calcidius on Plato’s Timaeus – Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2020, ix + 243 pp.
- Specht, Rainer (ed.), Christian Wolff: Disquisitio philosophica de loquela. Philosophische Untersuchung über die Sprache. Lateinisch-Deutsch. Übersetzung und Kommentar. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag 2019. xliii + 388 pp. (Philosophische Bibliothek 727).
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- The Learner’s Motivation and the Structure of Habituation in Aristotle
- Aristotle on How Pleasure Perfects Activity (Nicomachean Ethics x.5 1175a29-b14): The Optimising-View
- Ethics as Medicine: Moral Therapy, Expertise, and Practical Reasoning in al-Ghazālī’s Ethics
- Der kosmologische Gottesbeweis des Ralph von Battle. Rekonstruktion, Kritik und Einordnung
- “A Notion of the True System of the World”: Berkeley and his Use of Plato in Siris
- Leibniz on the Grounds of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- Book Reviews
- Reydams-Schils, Gretchen, Calcidius on Plato’s Timaeus – Greek Philosophy, Latin Reception and Christian Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2020, ix + 243 pp.
- Specht, Rainer (ed.), Christian Wolff: Disquisitio philosophica de loquela. Philosophische Untersuchung über die Sprache. Lateinisch-Deutsch. Übersetzung und Kommentar. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag 2019. xliii + 388 pp. (Philosophische Bibliothek 727).
