(It's better to create than destroy what's unnecessary)

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Principles Of Human Knowledge - pg. 59

The overall story, as I see it, of how Berkeley stands in relation to the work of these four men is roughly as follows. Malebranche represents an intellectual tradition that stretches back to the scholastics and eventually to St Augustine. Descartes and Locke represents a distinctive philosophical position, informed by the new science. Newton was the new science personified. Berkeley was deeply impressed by Newton's work, and wanted to give it pride of place in his philosophical picture. But he wanted to overtun much of the philosophy of Locke and Descartes, and return as (always still informed by the new science) more nearly to the ways of Malebranche and his tradition.

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