A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, also known as the Principles of Human Knowledge or simply the Treatise, is a work written in 1710 by George Berkeley, an Irish Empiricist philosopher. The primary aim of this book is to challenge the assertions put forth by Berkeley's contemporary, John Locke, regarding the nature of human perception. While both Locke and Berkeley, like other Empiricist thinkers, agreed that we have experiences, regardless of the existence of material objects, Berkeley sought to demonstrate that the external world (the world that gives rise to the ideas within our minds) is exclusively composed of ideas. To support his argument, Berkeley proposed that 'Ideas can only resemble Ideas'. In other words, the mental ideas we possess can only resemble other ideas rather than material objects. Consequently, Berkeley contended that the external world is not made up of physical forms but rather consists entirely of ideas. According to Berkeley, this world obtains its logic and regularity from a separate force, which he ultimately identifies as God.

Part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World set.

This book has 36,362 words, and was originally published in 1710.