By ‘ideas’ it is not quite clear that Locke did not mean quite what Berkeley took him to mean. Idealism is the philosophy that the stuff of the world is mental rather than material. Berkeley was one sort of idealist. Hegel was another.
As for Berkeley or Spinoza if I really wanted to refute them I would need to
see them in terms of an uncomfortable demand. That could be possible if I
turned my attention to them in the right way. Normally I look at them as
interesting speculations I want to understand.
I am less interested in refuting than in understanding him. His full vision is found in his late work Siris or The Virtues of Tar Water.
To be is to be perceived, and the direct and immediate role of God in implanting all our perceptions.
By the standards of ordinary commonsense beliefs were actually very strange. Counter intuitive, so it can be surprising how he has managed to influence modern science.
It is often said that philosophy typically oversimplifies the great complexity of life by taking some principle to absurd conclusions. Thus Berkeley denies matter, Skinner denies mind, Leibniz denies interaction, some say Wittgenstein denies the whole realm of private experience, Nietzsche is said to deny morality.
Next (with Berkeley) we perceive that this statement is false. There is an optical sensation (Vedanta) of red; an olfactory sensation of fragrance; and so on. Even its weight, its space, are modifications of sense; and the whole statement is transformed into "Here is a pleasurable set of sensations which we group under the name of a rose." In such a world lives the sensuous artist. (Crowley)
One interesting book relating excrement to philosophy 'The Unconscious Origin of Berkeley's Philosophy' by JO Wisdom, 1953. He draws heavily on Berkeley’s late work Siris or The Virtues of Tar Water.
A number of modern philosophers have found much of value in Berkeley
Vaihinger finds far more in Berkeley than suspected. Mathematics. Importance of calculus. Infinitesimals and fluxions, key to his own theory of fictions.
Kripke Wittgenstein’s sceptical paradox, assimilate Wittgenstein’s ideas to Hume and Berkeley.
Philonous in the Dialogues with Hylas expresses his desire to protect the Christian faith. A touch of sanctimoniousness, suggesting Plato in laws.
Russell says relativity gives support to Berkeley. This strange hybrid world, part idealist, part materialist.
Mach says he was influenced by Berkeley in his conception of he universe.
Many readers have found a stumbling-block in what they took, erroneously indeed, to be the general character of my conception of the universe. And, to begin with, I must say that anyone who, in spite of repeated protests from myself and from other quarters, identifies my view with that of Berkeley, is undoubtedly very far removed from a proper appreciation of my position. This misconception is no doubt partly due to the fact that my view was developed from an earlier idealistic phase, which has left on my language traces which are probably not even yet entirely obliterated. For, of all the approaches to my standpoint, the one by way of idealism seems to me the easiest and most natural…. I feel it to be a piece of particularly good fortune that Aviaries has developed the same conception of the relation between the physical and psychical on an entirely realistic, or, if the phrase be preferred, a materialistic foundation … [italics mine; AS: 361-2; see also 358]….
Interpretation IX p 149 “For Berkeley in adult life faeces were poison.
We can also the root of the pure cement that Berkeley sought, and we can see that he feared that the good faeces would be destroyed by the bad, or reduced to its level.
Trismegistus forgeries but contain some genuine Egyptian philosophy. Isis as nature
Why may we not suppose certain idiosyncrasies, sympathies, oppositions, in the solids or fluids, or animal spirit of a human body, with regard to the fine insensible parts of minerals or vegetables, impregnated by rays of light of different proper ties, not depending on the different size, figure, number, solidity or weight of those particles, nor on the general laws of motion, nor on the density or elasticity of a medium, but merely and altogether on the good pleasure of the Creator, in the original formation of things?
Siris
The nerves as the internal clothing of the body.
The apparent system of natural cuases all designed for man’s benefit, to help him find his way.
His view of the atmosphere as a lving thing.. Fascinating work form the early days of science, Speculation free, not like the received bodies of knowledge a scientific education gives today. The atmosphere as a lving thing. Scents as sprits. What we have today. Democritus, mechanism.
His radical alternative to mechanism.
Jo wisdom. Faces. Boerhaave, Newton, Boyle, Homberg.
Light as the medium. Mechanical causes. Refuting the deistic idea of seeds. Regularity f nature purpose designed for men. Homberg and alchemy, inadequacy of Descartes, and his circular notion.
Admiring Newton’s theory of colours (unlike Goethe). Wanting to apply some such theory to other senses, like smell.
Advocating prohibition for spirituous liquors, i.e. gin.
In those days before Irish nationalism he was just in one of the poorest parts of the kingdom.
I was expecting Siris to be tedious and difficult, as I had read it was.. Actually it is the best book I have read this year. Fully compatible with neoplatonism and in tune with contemporary science as well.
The mechanical philosophy of ?Descartes criticised.
Science and experimental hypothesis, treating of the possible connections and system of scents as Newton colours.
Religion without the usual dishonesty.
Misconception one might have of Berkeley, that he was a crank. He was far more than that, he enters completely into the mainstream of human thought.
That he was Irish. He has been commandeered by Irish nationalists.. Yeats, a Londoner.
My own rejection of Christianity. I derive good of evil. Berkeley has nothing to say
Pointing our Plato and Aristotle were not adherents, though Spinoza, Hobbes and Collins were.. How nationalism can make smaller, truncate a tradition. about morality, though even Locke has.
