The Other Bishop Berkeley

Book excerpt: Costica Bradatan proposes a new way of looking at the influential 18th-century Anglo-Irish empiricist philosopher. He approaches Berkeley's thought from the standpoint of its roots, rather than from how this thought has been viewed since his time. In Bradatan's portrait, we can see two Berkeleys, quite distinct from one another. This other Berkeley read and wrote alchemical books, designed utopian projects, and searched for Happy Islandsand the Earthly Paradise.His new attitude toward the material world echoed the dualistic theology of the Cathars. The thinking of the other Bishop Berkeley was rooted in Platonic, mystical, and sometimes esoteric traditions, and he saw philosophy as, above all, a kind of salvation, to be practiced as a way of life. What Bradatan uncovers is a much richer, true-to-life Berkeley, a more profound and spectacular thinker.This book will interest scholars working in a wide variety of fields, from philosophy and the history of ideas to comparative literature, utopian studies, religious and medieval studies, and critical theory.