Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World

Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 303
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780192507556
ISBN-13 : 0192507559
Rating : 4/5 (559 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World by : Kenneth L. Pearce

Download or read book Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World written by Kenneth L. Pearce and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to George Berkeley (1685-1753), there is fundamentally nothing in the world but minds and their ideas. Ideas are understood as pure phenomenal 'feels' which are momentarily had by a single perceiver, then vanish. Surprisingly, Berkeley tries to sell this idealistic philosophical system as a defense of common-sense and an aid to science. However, both common-sense and Newtonian science take the perceived world to be highly structured in a way that Berkeley's system does not appear to allow. Kenneth L. Pearce argues that Berkeley's solution to this problem lies in his innovative philosophy of language. The solution works at two levels. At the first level, it is by means of our conventions for the use of physical object talk that we impose structure on the world. At a deeper level, the orderliness of the world is explained by the fact that, according to Berkeley, the world itself is a discourse 'spoken' by God - the world is literally an object of linguistic interpretation. The structure that our physical object talk - in common-sense and in Newtonian physics - aims to capture is the grammatical structure of this divine discourse. This approach yields surprising consequences for some of the most discussed issues in Berkeley's metaphysics. Most notably, it is argued that, in Berkeley's view, physical objects are neither ideas nor collections of ideas. Rather, physical objects, like forces, are mere quasi-entities brought into being by our linguistic practices.


Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World Related Books

Language and the Structure of Berkeley's World
Language: en
Pages: 303
Authors: Kenneth L. Pearce
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-03-16 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

GET EBOOK

According to George Berkeley (1685-1753), there is fundamentally nothing in the world but minds and their ideas. Ideas are understood as pure phenomenal 'feels'
The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley
Language: en
Pages: 704
Authors:
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-01-18 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

GET EBOOK

The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley is a compendious examination of a vast array of topics in the philosophy of George Berkeley (1685-1753), Anglican Bishop of Cloy
The Notions of George Berkeley
Language: en
Pages: 184
Authors: James Hill
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-06-30 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

GET EBOOK

George Berkeley's doctrine of notions is often disparaged or dismissed. In a systematic interpretation and positive reconstruction of the doctrine, James Hill p
The World Atlas of Language Structures
Language: en
Pages: 712
Authors: Martin Haspelmath
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-07-21 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

GET EBOOK

The World Atlas of Language Structures is a book and CD combination displaying the structural properties of the world's languages. 142 world maps and numerous r
The Routledge Guidebook to Berkeley’s Three Dialogues
Language: en
Pages: 178
Authors: Stefan Storrie
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-12-21 - Publisher: Routledge

GET EBOOK

The Routledge Guidebook to Berkeley’s Three Dialogues is an engaging introduction to the last of a trio of works that cemented Berkeley’s position as one of