Language, Berkeley, and God

✍ Scribed by E. G. King

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1970
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 666 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7047
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00135538

✦ Synopsis

LANGUAGE, BERKELEY, AND GOD

Berkeley's divine visual language argument for the existence of God has received little attention from philosophers. ~ It is possible although unlikely that most philosophers have found the argument defective and hence have ignored it. Even if it were true that most philosophers consider the argument defective, we do not thereby have a plausible explanation of the lack of discussion. The case of the ontological argument makes this point abundantly clear. The neglect can be partially explained by the general neglect of Berkeley's philosophy of God. Another factor is undoubtedly the fact that the argument appears in Alciphron, an apologetic work which is more theological than philosophical. But whatever the full explanation the argument is of philosophical interest. It is a brilliant attempt to develop a distinctive version of what is now known as the design argument. 2 The basic idea behind the argument is simple although the argument itself is quite sophisticated -a hallmark of Berkeley's thought generally. I will be concerned with the exposition of the argument, the explicitation of its presuppositions, some objections and responses to objections. I am not concerned with providing a rigorous defense of the argument or a knockdown refutation. Rather I am interested in showing that the argument merits serious attention whether it is finally satisfactory or not. Such an approach would not likely have satisfied Berkeley who regarded his argument as 1 It is treated by Edward Sillem, George Berkeley and the Proofs for the Existence of God,