Bishop Berkeley

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2014

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop who was one of the most important philosophers of the eighteenth century. Bishop Berkeley believed that objects only truly exist in the mind of somebody who perceives them - an idea he called immaterialism. His interests and writing ranged widely, from the science of optics to religion and the medicinal benefits of tar water. His work on the nature of perception was a spur to many later thinkers, including David Hume and Immanuel Kant. The clarity of Berkeley's writing, and his ability to pose a profound problem in an easily understood form, has made him one of the most admired early modern thinkers. With: Peter Millican Gilbert Ryle Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford Tom Stoneham Professor of Philosophy at the University of York Michela Massimi Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh. Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, in his life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell recalls a conversation the two men had about
0:16.9	the work of the philosopher George Barclay, and his theory that objects do not really
0:22.0	exist except as ideas in our minds. theory that although
0:27.4	objects do not really exist except as ideas in our minds.
0:25.4	Boswell observed to Dr Johnson that although Barclay's theory was
0:28.3	obviously wrong it was also impossible to refute. He later wrote I never sure forget the alacrity with which Johnson
0:35.7	answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone till he rebounded from it.
0:41.5	I refute it thus, he said.
0:44.3	Barclay was an Anglican bishop from Ireland who became one of the most celebrated
0:47.8	thinkers of the 18th century. In a series of philosophical works he outlined a theory
0:52.4	that he called immaterialism which argued
0:55.0	for the inexistence of matter.
0:57.4	Like John Locke and David Hume, Humb Berkeley is often described as a British
1:00.2	empiricist, although his ideas differ from theirs in many important aspects.
1:04.9	With me to discuss the life and work of Bishop Barclay are Peter Milliken, Gilbert
1:09.2	R. Wryl Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Hartford College Oxford Oxford, Tom Stearnham, Professor of Philosophy at Hartford College, Oxford, Tom Stoneham, Professor of Philosophy at the University of York,
1:16.5	and Michaela Massimi, Senior Lecture in Philosophy and in the Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh.
1:23.4	Peter Milneker, Barclay was born in 1685, 35 years after death of Descartes, two years before Newton's
1:31.2	masterpiece Principia. Would you give us a sense of
1:33.9	European thought at that time? Yes, certainly. He needs to be understood very much in
	...

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