George Berkeley

Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1685, George Berkeley studied at Trinity College Dublin and went on to become an Anglican clergyman and later Bishop of Cloyne. He is often called Bishop Berkeley, and he became one of the central figures in early modern philosophy.

Berkeley is most famous for developing immaterialism, the view that what we call the material world exists only as it is perceived by minds and sustained by the mind of God. He presented these ideas in works such as A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, writing in a clear, argumentative style that still sparks debate today.

His interests reached beyond philosophy into science, mathematics, religion, and education. He also spent time in America pursuing a plan to found a college in Bermuda, and his name later became attached to the city of Berkeley in California. He died in Oxford in 1753, but his work continues to challenge readers to rethink what seems most obvious about reality.