Can the Berkeleyan Idealist Resist Spinozist Panpsychism?
In: History of Philosophy & Logical AnalysisSearch for other papers by Graham Clay in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Michael Rauschenbach in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
We argue that prevailing definitions of Berkeley’s idealism fail to rule out a nearby Spinozist rival view that we call ‘mind-body identity panpsychism.’ Since Berkeley certainly does not agree with Spinoza on this issue, we call for more care in defining Berkeley’s view. After we propose our own definition of Berkeley’s idealism, we survey two Berkeleyan strategies to block the mind-body identity panpsychist and establish his idealism. We argue that Berkeley should follow Leibniz and further develop his account of the mind’s unity. Unity—not activity—is the best way for Berkeley to establish his view at the expense of his panpsychist competitors.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
PHKBerkeley, G. 1710. Of the Principles of Human Knowledge: Part 1. Luce & Jessop (eds.) 1948–1957. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
-
3D Berkeley, G. 1713. Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Luce & Jessop (eds.) 1948–1957. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
-
DM Berkeley, G. 1721. De Motu, or The Principle and Nature of Motion and the Cause of the Communication of Motions. Luce & Jessop (eds.) 1948–1957. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
-
E Spinoza, B. 1677. Ethica Ordine Geometrico. Curley (tr.) 1994. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-
Adams, R. 2017. Idealism Vindicated. In: Goldschmidt, T. & Pearce, K. (eds.), Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Allaire, E. 1963. Berkeley’s Idealism. Theoria 29, 229–244.
-
Ariew, R. & Garber, D. (eds.). 1989. Philosophical Essays. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
-
Bennett, J. 1984. A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics. Cambridge, MA: Hackett.
-
Berman, D. 1994. George Berkeley. Idealism and the Man. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
-
Bettcher, T. 2007. Berkeley’s Philosophy of Spirit. Consciousness, Ontology, and the Elusive Subject. London: Continuum.
-
Bettcher, T. 2008. Berkeley on Self-Consciousness. In: Daniel, S. (ed.), New Interpretations of Berkeley’s Thought. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press Books.
-
Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.). 2016. Panpsychism. Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Buras, T. & Dougherty, T. 2017. Parrying Parity. In: Goldschmidt, T. & Pearce, K. (eds.), Idealism. New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Chalmers, D. 2015. Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism. In: Alter, T. & Nagasawa, Y. (eds.), Consciousness and the Physical World. Perspectives on Russellian Monism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Chalmers, D. 2016a. Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism. In: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.), Panpsychism. Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Chalmers, D. 2016b. The Combination Problem for Panpsychism. In: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.), Panpsychism. Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Curley, E. & Walski, G. 1999. Spinoza’s Necessitarianism Reconsidered. In: Gennaro, R. & Huenemann, C. (eds.), New Essays on the Rationalists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Daniel, S. 2001. Berkeley’s Pantheistic Discourse. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 49, 179–194.
-
Daniel, S. 2008. Berkeley’s Stoic Notion of Spiritual Substance. In: Daniel, S. (ed.), New Interpretations of Berkeley’s Thought. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press Books.
-
Della Rocca, M. 1999. Representation and the Mind-Body Problem in Spinoza. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Della Rocca, M. 2002. Spinoza’s Substance Monism. In: Koistinen, O. & Biro, J. (eds.), Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Della Rocca, M. 2003. The Power of an Idea: Spinoza’s Critique of Pure Will. Nous 37(2), 200–231.
-
Della Rocca, M. 2008. Spinoza. New York: Routledge.
-
Della Rocca, M. 2012. Rationalism, Idealism, Monism, and Beyond. In: Forster, E. & Melamed, Y. (eds.), Spinoza and German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Di Poppa, F. 2013. Spinoza on Causation and Power. Southern Journal of Philosophy 51(3), 297–319.
-
Downing, L. 2013. George Berkeley. In: Zalta, E. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 edition). URL: <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/berkeley/>. Accessed: December 16, 2019.
-
Downing, L. 2018. Sensible Qualities and Secondary Qualities in the First Dialogue. In: Storrie, S. (ed.), Berkeley’s Three Dialogues: New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Earle, W. 1951. The Ontological Argument in Spinoza. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 11(4), 549–554.
-
Flage, D. 2018. George Berkeley. In: Fieser, J. & Dowden, B. (eds.), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. URL: <https://www.iep.utm.edu/berkeley/>. Accessed: December 16, 2019.
-
Frankel, M. 2013. Acts, Ideas, and Objects in Berkeley’s Metaphysics. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 43(4), 475–493.
-
Garrett, D. 1979. Spinoza’s Ontological Argument. The Philosophical Review 88(2), 198–223.
-
Garrett, D. 2000. Spinoza’s Necessitarianism. In: Yovel, Y. (ed.), God and Nature: Spinoza’s Metaphysics. London: Brill.
-
Garrett, D. 2002. Spinoza’s Conatus Argument. In: Koistinen, O. & Biro, J. (eds.), Spinoza. Metaphysical Themes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Garrett, D. 2018a. Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke on Extended Thinking Beings. In: Garrett, D. (ed.), Nature and Necessity in Spinoza’s Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Garrett, D. 2018b. Postscript: Arguments for God’s Existence Revisited. In: Garrett, D. (ed.), Nature and Necessity in Spinoza’s Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Goldschmidt, T. & Pearce, K. (eds.). 2017. Idealism. New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Guyer, P. & Horstmann, R. 2018. Idealism. In: Zalta, E. (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 edition). <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/idealism/>. Accessed: December 16, 2019.
-
Hausman, D. & Hausman, A. 1995. A New Approach to Berkeley’s Ideal Reality. In: Muehlmann, R. (ed.), Berkeley’s Metaphysics. Structural, Interpretative, and Critical Essays. State College: Penn Station Press.
-
Hight, M. & Ott, W. 2004. The New Berkeley. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 34, 1–24.
-
Hill, J. 2018. The Active Self and Perception in Berkeley’s Three Dialogues. In: Storrie, S. (ed.), Berkeley’s Three Dialogues. New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Holden, T. 2019. Berkeley on Inconceivability and Impossibility. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 98(1), 107–122.
-
Jarrett, C.E. 1976. Spinoza’s Ontological Argument. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 6(4), 685–692.
-
Kim, J. 2005. Physicalism, or Something Near Enough. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-
Laerke, M. 2011. Spinoza’s Cosmological Argument in the Ethics. Journal of the History of Philosophy 49(4), 439–462.
-
Luce, A.A. & Jessop, T.E. (eds.) 1948–1957. The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. 9 vols.
-
Marušić, J.S. 2018. Berkeley on the Objects of Perception. In: Storrie, S. (ed.), Berkeley’s Three Dialogues. New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Melamed, Y. 2013a. Spinoza’s Metaphysics of Thought: Parallelisms and the Multi-faceted Structure of Ideas. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 86(3), 636–683.
-
Melamed, Y. 2013b. Spinoza’s Metaphysics. Substance and Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Montero, B. 2016. What Combination Problem? In: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.), Panpsychism. Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Muehlmann, R. 1992. Berkeley’s Ontology. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
-
Muehlmann, R. 1995. The Substance of Berkeley’s Philosophy. In: Muehlmann, R. (ed.), Berkeley’s Metaphysics: Structural, Interpretative, and Critical Essays. State College: Penn Station Press.
-
Newlands, S. 2012. Thinking, Conceiving, and Idealism in Spinoza. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 94, 31–52.
-
Newlands, S. 2018. Reconceiving Spinoza. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Pearce, K. 2017. Language and the Structure of Berkeley’s World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Pitcher, G. 1969. Minds and Ideas in Berkeley. American Philosophical Quarterly 6(3), 198–207.
-
Rickless, S. 2013. Berkeley’s Argument for Idealism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Roberts, J.R. 2018. A Puzzle in the Three Dialogues and Its Platonic Resolution. In: Storrie, S. (ed.), Berkeley’s Three Dialogues: New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Roberts, J.R. 2007. A Metaphysics for the Mob. The Philosophy of George Berkeley. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Segal, A. & Goldschmidt, T. 2017. The Necessity of Idealism. In: Goldschmidt, T. & Pearce, K. (eds.), Idealism. New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Smithson, R. 2017. A New Epistemic Argument for Idealism. In: Goldschmidt, T. & Pearce, K. (eds.), Idealism. New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Strawson, G. et al. 2006. Consciousness and Its Place in Nature. Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism?, Freeman (ed.), Charlottesville: Imprint Academic.
-
Strawson, G. 2016. Mind and Being. In: Brüntrup, G. & Jaskolla, L. (eds.), Panpsychism. Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Storrie, S. 2018. The Scope of Berkeley’s Idealism in the 1734 Edition of the Three Dialogues. In: Storrie, S. (ed.), Berkeley’s Three Dialogues. New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Watson, R. 1963. Berkeley in a Cartesian Context. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 63, 381–394.
-
Wilson, F. 1995. On the Hausmans’ ‘A New Approach.’ In: Muehlmann, R. (ed.), Berkeley’s Metaphysics. Structural, Interpretative, and Critical Essays. State College: Penn Station Press.
-
Wilson, J. 2005. Supervenience Based Formulations of Physicalism. Nous 39(3), 426–459.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 296 | 77 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 13 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 32 | 3 | 0 |
Can the Berkeleyan Idealist Resist Spinozist Panpsychism?
In: History of Philosophy & Logical AnalysisSearch for other papers by Graham Clay in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Michael Rauschenbach in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
We argue that prevailing definitions of Berkeley’s idealism fail to rule out a nearby Spinozist rival view that we call ‘mind-body identity panpsychism.’ Since Berkeley certainly does not agree with Spinoza on this issue, we call for more care in defining Berkeley’s view. After we propose our own definition of Berkeley’s idealism, we survey two Berkeleyan strategies to block the mind-body identity panpsychist and establish his idealism. We argue that Berkeley should follow Leibniz and further develop his account of the mind’s unity. Unity—not activity—is the best way for Berkeley to establish his view at the expense of his panpsychist competitors.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 296 | 77 | 15 |
| Full Text Views | 13 | 1 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 32 | 3 | 0 |
