Alciphron (book)
Encyclopedia
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is a philosophical dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

 by the 18th-century Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 philosopher George Berkeley
George Berkeley
George Berkeley , also known as Bishop Berkeley , was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism"...

 wherein Berkeley tried to combat the arguments of free-thinkers such as Mandeville
Mandeville
-People:*Bernard Mandeville, philosopher*Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex*Geoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex*Sir John Mandeville, French language author*William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex-Places:*Mandeville, Eure, Normandy, France...

 and Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...

 against the Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. It was first published in 1732.

The dialogue is primarily between four characters, the free-thinkers Alciphron and Lysicles, Berkeley's spokesman Euphranor, and Crito, who serves as a spokesman for traditional Christianity. The mostly-silent narrator of the dialogue is given the name Dion.

The work contains two especially notable sections:
  • Dialogue IV, in which Berkeley presents a novel teleological argument
    Teleological argument
    A teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and intelligent design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human...

     for the existence of God
    God
    God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

     based on Berkeley's theory of visual language, defended in the Essay Toward a New Theory of Vision (first published in 1709, and included with the first edition of Alciphron).
  • Dialogue VII, in which Berkeley presents a novel theory of language which has been compared with the theory of language advocated by Ludwig Wittgenstein
    Ludwig Wittgenstein
    Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...

     in his Philosophical Investigations.

In a later work, The Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained (first published in 1733), Berkeley adduced the work of Alberto Radicati
Alberto Radicati
Alberto Radicati, Count of Passerano was an 18th century historian, philosopher and free-thinker. He was the reputed author of the 1732 work A Philosophical Dissertation upon Death, Composed for the Consolation of the Unhappy by a Friend of Truth, published in London. This work created a scandal...

 as evidence that the views advocated by the character Lysicles were not overly exaggerated (para. 5).

External links

  • or the Minute Philosopher 1803 ed. from Google Books
  • Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher (The Works of George Berkeley. Ed. by Alexander Campbell Fraser
    Alexander Campbell Fraser
    Alexander Campbell Fraser was a Scottish philosopher.Born at Ardchattan, Argyll, the son of the parish minister, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where, from 1846 to 1856, he was professor of Logic at New College...

    . In 4 Volumes. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901) from Internet Archive
    Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

  • Paraphrase of Alciphron at Early Modern Texts
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