Dublin: Aaron Rhames for Jeremy Pepyat, 1710. First edition. Octavo (200 x 125 mm): A-2E4; 111 (of 112) leaves, lacking final blank 2E4. Contemporary calf, very skilfully rebacked to style, paneled in blind, no pastedowns as bound. Penciled 19th-century ownership signature of one James Kennedy to head of title page, another owner's name neatly excised to its right (not affecting title border); Kennedy’s penciled annotations throughout and doodle to front free endpaper. Extremities neatly restored. A couple of faint ring-stains and a few very minor scratches and splashes to calf; contents a little browned and soiled, very minor worming in inner margin (glancing text). A very good copy, in a simple, most probably Irish binding.

The Treatise is Berkeley's major work, “the classic exposition of his philosophy of immaterialism as an antidote to infidelity” (Oxford DNB). This is the first and only published part of the work; the second part was lost while still in manuscript. In the Treatise, Berkeley argues that “no object can exist without a Mind to conceive it. Without the prexistence of the Mind, matter and substance, cause and effect, can have no meaning...Thus the universe is the sum of human experience" (PMM, 176). The work “set out his idealistic philosophy in detail, arguing that the concept of ‘material substance’ is at once absurd and explanatorily useless. He pointed out that even philosophers who posit the existence of material bodies cannot explain how matter can produce ideas in the mind, or how purely mental phenomena like ideas could resemble or correspond to non-mental, material substances. Perhaps his most shocking claim in favour of his metaphysics was his oft-repeated contention that his principles were in strict accord with common sense and inimical to skepticism” (Grattan-Guinness, p. 122).

Though his importance was not widely recognized in his day, Berkeley is now regarded as a crucial figure in eighteenth-century philosophy. He was heavily influenced by Locke, whose "speculation...about the meaning and necessity of matter" he challenges in the Treatise; in turn, both Berkeley and Locke had a major impact on Hume (PMM). Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740) develops many of Berkeley's ideas into their final form.

Keynes, Berkeley, 5; Norman, 196; PMM, 176. Grattan-Guinness, Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics, 1640-1940, 2005. Very Good (Item #6847)