The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne

Abstract

THIS first volume of the new complete edition of the works of Berkeley is most welcome and is a handsome well-produced book worthy of its subject. Frier's editions of 1871 and 1901 have been useful, but have some serious defects. Fraser discovered the notebooks containing Berkeley's "Philosophical Commentaries", but failed to see that they had been bound together in the wrong order. His transcription was not always accurate. Prof. Luce's magnificent edition of 1944 put right these defects and provided invaluable notes. He here reprints the "Commentaries" in handier form with shorter notes, sufficient for explanatory purposes. The "New Theory of Vision" never presented serious textual difficulties ; but Fraser did not distinguish properly the alterations made by Berkeley in his life-time and does not appear to have used the last version. Prof. Luce reprints this fourth and last edition, indicating all alterations. In his introduction, while stressing the permanent value of this work of Berkeley, he mentions a point often forgotten, namely, how much it owed to the influence of Molyneux.

The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne

Edited by Prof. A. A. Luce Prof. T. E. Jessop. (Bibliotheca Britannica Philosophica.) Vol. 1: Philosophical Commentaries, Essay towards a New Theory of Vision. Theory of Vision Vindicated. Edited by Prof. A. A. Luce. Pp. viii + 280. (London and Edinburg: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1948.) 30s. net.