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Berkeley's Demonstration of God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

William Bowman Piper
William Bowman Piper
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
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Extract

Berkeley's demonstration of God is not philosophically the most important part of his Principles of Human Knowledge. But a close understanding of this demonstration helps one realize just how clearly Berkeley saw, or was willing to see, the logical consequences of those tenets of the Principles which have proven important in the course of philosophy. A step by step analysis of the proof also discloses how much of his philosophical and religious heritage, some of it inimical to his tenets, Berkeley carried into this revolutionary document.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , October 1958 , pp. 275 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1958

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References

1 In The Works of George Berkeley Bishop of Cloyne, II, ed. Jessop, T. E. (New York, 1949)Google Scholar. All my citations from Berkeley are to this edition, hereafter cited as Works; however, I refer to the Principles' section numbers, which are the same in all editions, rather than to page numbers.

2 The Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, I, ed. Pegis, Anton C. (New York, 1944), p. 89.Google Scholar

3 In Works, III, ed. Jessop, pp. 146–147.

4 The Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. McKeon, Richard (New York, 1941), p. 374Google Scholar.

5 Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in Works, II, p. 212.

6 Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Pringle-Pattison, A. S. (Oxford, 1950), p. 311Google Scholar. I am also indebted to Mr. Pringle-Pattison's footnote 1.

7 Locke, pp. 137–138.