Berkeley and God in the Quad

Philosophy Compass 7 (6):388-396 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In a familiar limerick attributed to Ronald Knox, the narrator asks how a “tree/should continue to be/when there’s no one about in the Quad,” and is subsequently reassured that its continuous existence is guaranteed by God’s being “always about in the Quad” observing it. This is meant to capture Berkeley’s so‐called ‘continuity argument’ for the existence of God, on which the claim that objects exist continuously over time is supposed to entail the existence of a Divine Mind that continuously perceives the ideas that constitute those objects. But the continuity argument is not an uncontroversial one. For one thing, we might ask what divine perception is supposed to be like – does God perceive all of the ideas that we do, and in the same way that we do? And if so, does this mean that God perceives pain – that God suffers? For another thing, we might ask whether Berkeley is entitled to the claim that objects exist continuously to begin with. In this paper, I look at some of the problems associated with the continuity argument, and then present a reading of divine perception that attempts to prevent these problems from arising at the outset

Other Versions

edition Frankel, Melissa (2012) "Berkeley: Ideas, Immaterialism, and Objective Presence". Berkeley Studies 23():46-50

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,449

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Berkeley on God.Stephen H. Daniel - 2021 - In Samuel Charles Rickless, The Oxford Handbook of Berkeley. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 177-93.
Solipcism in George Berkeley's Philosophy.Vinícius França Freitas - 2021 - Analytica. Revista de Filosofia 23 (2):88-116.
What Is God Doing in the Quad?Robert McKim - 1987 - Philosophy Research Archives 13:637-653.
A Love that Hides.Meredith Sheeks - 2023 - Faith and Philosophy 40 (2):202-220.
Berkeley, perception, and identity.Donald L. M. Baxter - 1991 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51 (1):85-98.
The Existence Principle.Quentin Gibson - 1998 - Springer Verlag.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-05-04

Downloads
159 (#149,134)

6 months
5 (#702,808)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Melissa Frankel
Carleton University

Citations of this work

Berkeley on the “Twofold state of things”.Melissa Frankel - 2016 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 80 (1):43-60.
Berkeley on Unperceived Objects and the Publicity of Language.Kenneth L. Pearce - 2017 - History of Philosophy Quarterly 34 (3):231-250.
Two routes to idealism: Collier and Berkeley.David Bartha - 2020 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (6):1071-1093.
Acts, ideas, and objects in Berkeley's metaphysics.Melissa Frankel - 2013 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 43 (4):475-493.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Locke, Berkeley, Hume; Central Themes.Jonathan Bennett - 1971 - Oxford,: Oxford University Press UK.
Berkeley: An Interpretation.Kenneth P. Winkler - 1989 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.George Berkeley, A. A. Luce & T. E. Jessop - 1954 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 4 (16):353-353.
Postscript to "mad pain and Martian pain".David K. Lewis - 1983 - Philosophical Papers 12:122-133.
Berkeley.George Pitcher - 1977 - New York: Routledge.

View all 23 references / Add more references