Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

About this book

Hylas, who believes in the ordinary idea of material things existing outside the mind, meets Philonous, whose name means 'lover of mind', on three morning walks. Step by step Philonous leads him to admit that colours, sounds, heat, shape and even solidity exist only as they are perceived, and argues that there is no need for any unperceived 'matter' at all: to be is to be perceived, and the world exists continuously in the mind of God.

Context and significance

George Berkeley (1685–1753), an Irish philosopher and later Bishop of Cloyne, published the dialogues in 1713 to present in a readable form the startling theory he had set out in his Principles of Human Knowledge. Samuel Johnson famously kicked a large stone and declared, 'I refute it thus.' Compare Hume's Enquiry, and read Descartes's Meditations.

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