George Berkeley

George Berkeley is one of the best known names in British philosophy. Unlike nearly all previous studies, this book looks at the full range of Berkeley's work and links it with his lifefocussing in particular on his religious thought. Dr Berman presents a clear picture of Berkeley's career, and at the same time breaks new ground on, among other topics, Berkeley's philosophical strategy, his account of immortality, his Jacobitism, and his emotive theory of religious mysteries. Special attention is paid to the Irish context of his thought, his symbolic frontispieces and portraits, and recent discoveries concerning his life and writings. The Berkeley that emerges from this study is deeper and more human than the usual pictures of him: something more than the starry-eyed idealist or commonsense realist, something less than the good bishop with every virtue under heaven.