The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley

George Berkeley is one of the greatest and most influential modern philosophers. In defending the immaterialism for which he is most famous, he redirected modern thinking about the nature of objectivity and the mind's capacity to come to terms with it. Along the way, he made striking and influential proposals concerning the psychology of the senses, the workings of language, the aims of science, and the scope of mathematics. In this Companion volume a team of distinguished authors not only examines Berkeley's achievements but also his neglected contributions to moral and political philosophy, his writings on economics and development, and his defense of religious commitment and religious life. The volume places Berkeley's achievements in the context of the many social and intellectual traditions - philosophical, scientific, ethical, and religious - to which he fashioned a distinctive response.

1. Berkeley's life and works David Berman; 2. Was Berkeley an empiricist or a rationalist? Michael Ayers; 3. Berkeley's notebooks Robert McKim; 4. Berkeley's new theory of vision and its reception Margaret Atherton; 5. Berkeley and the doctrine of signs Kenneth P. Winkler; 6. Berkeley's argument for immaterialism Anthony Grayling; 7. Berkeley on minds and agency Philip D. Cummins; 8. Berkeley's natural philosophy and philosophy of science Lisa Downing; 9. Berkeley's philosophy of mathematics Douglas M. Jesseph; 10. Berkeley's moral and political philosophy Stephen Darwall; 11. Berkeley's economic writings Partick Kelly; 12. Berkeley on religion Stephen R. Clark.

In defending immaterialism, George Berkeley redirected modern thinking about the nature of objectivity and the mind's capacity to come to terms with it. This Companion examines Berkeley's achievements and contributions to moral and political philosophy, his writings on economics and development, and his defense of religious commitment and life.