2.6 George Berkeley and Idealism

What this lecture covers

This lecture introduces Nicolas Malebranche, a French Cartesian whose theory of occasionalism provides the key background for understanding George Berkeley. It follows the discussion of Locke by returning to the question of what makes one thing cause another, and uses Malebranche's answer to set up Berkeley's more radical theory.

Malebranche argued that true causation requires a necessary connection between cause and effect, and that only God's will meets this standard, since ordinary events like one billiard ball striking another are only logically contingent, not necessary. The lecture then shows how Berkeley adapts this reasoning into immaterialism, holding that objects are nothing more than perceptions directly caused by God.

Key ideas

• Necessary connection: Malebranche argued a real cause must necessitate its effect; since we can conceive one billiard ball moving without the second one moving, physical contact cannot be a true cause.
• Occasionalism: only God's will provides the necessary connection required for real causation, so physical events like collisions are merely the 'occasion' for God to act.
• Perception as God's action: Malebranche extended this to perception, arguing God directly causes our perceptions, since nothing about physical objects necessitates that we perceive them.
• Berkeley's immaterialism: Berkeley radicalizes this by dropping the material objects entirely, holding that objects simply are the perceptions God causes in us.
• A response to scepticism: by identifying objects with perceptions, Berkeley claims to dissolve Locke's problem of how we can know that perceptions correspond to real external objects.
• Berkeley's instrumentalism: like Newton, Berkeley treats physical science as valuable for prediction even without believing in the reality of the entities (such as forces) it describes.

Before you watch

• Watch lecture 2.5 on Locke, since Berkeley's theory directly challenges Locke's account of perception and primary/secondary qualities.
• Recall Newton's instrumentalism from lecture 2.4, which Berkeley's own instrumentalism echoes.

Check your understanding

1. Why does Malebranche think physical contact cannot be a genuine cause?
2. What is occasionalism, and what role does God play in it?
3. How does Berkeley's immaterialism build on and go beyond Malebranche's occasionalism?
4. In what sense is Berkeley an instrumentalist about physical science despite denying material objects exist?