George Berkeley

In 1728, he married Anne Forster, the daughter of the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. The couple had seven children out of whom only three survived childhood.

He took active part in humanitarian work to help abandoned children in London. He was one of the original governors of the Foundling hospital, established by Royal Charter in 1739.

He was a cheerful, friendly and kind man who was well loved by everyone who knew him. He retired in 1752 and went to live with his son.

He was born as the eldest son of William Berkeley, an Englishman, in Ireland. He considered himself Irish in spite of his father’s English roots.

He enrolled at Kilkenny College in 1696. Later on he attended Trinity College, Dublin and received his B.A. in 1704. His association with the Trinity lasted till 1724, though not all the years were spent in residence.

He completed his master’s degree in 1707 and became a junior fellow. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1710. After the completion of his doctorate, he became a senior fellow in 1717.

He started publishing his works while at Trinity College. His first work on philosophy, ‘An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision’ was published in 1709. He discussed topics like visual distance, magnitude, issues of sight and touch, etc. in the book which created controversy at that time.

In 1710, he published ‘A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge’. In this book he attempted to refute claims about the nature of human perception as made by John Locke.

His next book, ‘Passive Obedience’ which dealt with issues of moral and political philosophy was out in 1712.

The much celebrated ‘Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous’ was published in 1713. He discussed the concepts of perceptual relativity and observer’s perceptions in this work.

He published his essay on motion, ‘De Motu’ in 1721 in which he rejected the concepts of absolute space, time and motion as propounded by the scientist Sir Isaac Newton.

His first major work was ‘Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous’ (1713) that discussed the concepts of perceptual relativity, conceivability and phenomenalism. In the book, his metaphysical views are expressed in the form of a dialogue between two characters, Hylas and Philonous.

His essay on the nature of motion, titled ‘De Motu’ (1721) rejects many of Sir Isaac Newton’s notions of space, time and motion. He argued that motion should not be considered as an abstraction separate from time and space.

‘Alciphron’ was a philosophical dialogue published in 1732 which is presented in the form of dialogue between four characters, who depict the free-thinkers Alciphron, Lysicles, Euphranor and Crito.

His book ‘Siris: a Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar Water’ (1744) was among the last of his major works. He discussed the various medicinal uses of tar water, and commented on a variety of seemingly unrelated topics such as science, philosophy and theology.