||boek: Berkeley|vertaling: Ans van Kersbergen|Lemniscaat-Kopstukken Filosofie

||door: J.O. Urmson

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2001
||druk: ?
||pag.: 133p
||opm.: softcover|zo goed als nieuw|bladrand ...

||isbn: 90-5637-278-5
||code: 1:000808

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Berkeley ---

De beroemde doctrine van George Berkeley (1685-1753) dat er niet zoiets als materie bestaat, dat het begrip materie volstrekt overbodig en zelfs niet te bevatten is, wordt gemakkelijk misverstaan en onderschat. In dit boek laat J.O. Urmson zien dat het, in de context van de filosofische en wetenschappelijke opvattingen van zijn tijd, helemaal niet onlogisch was dat Berkeley zijn stelling poneerde. De auteur beschrijft de theorieën van mensen als Galilei en Newton, en op basis daarvan komt hij tot een heldere en kritische analyse van Berkeleys filosofie. Hij laat zien dat Berkeley meer dan twee eeuwen van tevoren al anticipeerde op een versie van het utilitarisme die meestal wordt beschouwd als een vinding van onze eigen tijd.

[bron: https--www.bol.com]

Taken out of context, Berkeley's famous doctrine that there is no such thing as matter is easy to misunderstand and underestimate. But by viewing Berkeley against a wider intellectual background than is customary, J.O. Urmson achieves an unusually sympathetic assessment of Berkeley's philosophy.

He sees Berkeley's work as a serious critical analysis of the scientific thought of Newton and his predecessors, and of its metaphysical basis. Urmson starts with a chapter on the philosophy of science accepted from Galileo to Newton, and uses this as a basis for his discussion of Berkeley's writings. He gives a clear account of the relationshipo between Berkeley's metaphysics and his analysis of the concepts of science and common sense.

He shows, too, that Berkeley anticipated by more than two centuries a version of utilitarianism usually thought of as belonging to our own time.

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2001-12-31]

Sinds begin jaren '90 is er een duidelijke tendens waarbij de academische ivoren toren van de filosofie steeds hardnekkiger wordt belaagd door een breed publiek van geïnteresseerden, gefascineerd door wijsgerige reflectie. Maar omdat ze de geheimtaal niet beheersen, schieten ze vaak te kort. In die zin is er duidelijk nood aan voor een breed publiek toegankelijke boeken die als opstapjes kunnen fungeren naar de moeilijkere werken en inzichten. Een eerste opstap is de toegankelijke geschiedenis van de filosofie. Maar daar mag het zeker niet bij blijven: na de overzichtswerken dienen de individuele filosofen en hun respectieve werken in de schijnwerper te staan. Een volgende stap is dan ook een uitgebreidere kennismaking met het leven en denken van belangrijke auteurs uit de geschiedenis van de westerse filosofie. Wie zich niet meteen in monografieën voor een publiek met voorkennis wil verdiepen, zal de nieuwe reeks 'Kopstukken filosofie' van Lemniscaat genegen zijn. Het gaat hier om vertalingen uit de befaamde 'Past masters'-serie van Oxford University Press, waarin je in een beknopt bestek van 100 tot 150 bladzijden een heldere kennismaking krijgt, verteerbaar voor een zeer breed publiek van geïnteresseerden. De faam van de reeks schuilt vnl. in de gezaghebbende specialisten die zonder oversimplificatie inzicht en verstaanbaarheid aan elkaar paren. Het gaat hier om een unieke kans om niet-gespecialiseerde lezers op een structurele manier met een groot aantal filosofen te laten kennismaken. Alleen jammer dat een cruciaal onderdeel als 'Verder lezen', naast vnl. Engelstalige titels, soms te weinig aandacht besteedt aan Nederlandstalige uitgaven.

Deze kwaliteitsreeks heeft als extra voordeel dat ze op relatief korte termijn een groot aantal werken op de markt brengt die belangrijke filosofen en hun werk inleidend ontsluiten voor een breed publiek.

Kris van Zeghbroeck [bron: https--muntpunt.bibliotheek.be]

George Berkeley (1685-1753) geldt als een kritische, daardoor ook originele en geniale filosoof uit de bloeiperiode van de natuurwetenschappen; vaak gerekend tot de Engelse empiristen uit die tijd, maar zonder aandacht voor zijn heel eigen plaats daarin. Dit tekortdoen aan hem tracht dit boek te corrigeren door die eigenheid te benadrukken. Trouw aan de grondinspiratie van het empirisme stelt Berkeley dat alle menselijke kennis op waarneming berust; geen waarneming echter die ontleend is aan een zelfstandig buiten ons bestaande werkelijkheid. 'Zijn is waargenomen worden' en dat waargenomen worden is bepalend voor wat wij werkelijkheid noemen. De mogelijkheid van dat typische waarnemen, dat als het ware scheppend lijkt te zijn, wordt ons geschonken door God; voor Hem is alles wat bestaat 'door Hem waargenomen worden'; en daaraan laat Hij de mens deelhebben. Voor ons waarschijnlijk toch een moeilijk te vatten visie, hoe helder ze ook in dit boek uitgelegd en gepresenteerd wordt. Zowel voor kenners als geïnteresseerden zonder meer aan te bevelen lectuur. Deel uit een gerenommeerde reeks van inleidingen voor een ruim publiek tot leven en werk van belangrijke filosofen.

[bron: nbd biblion]

An idea of Berkley's work more than of his life [2005-03-29]

Berkley has one idea for which the world knows him. He is the successor of Locke who pushes British Empiricism one more step in the direction of Hume's skepticism about our knowledge of the real world. His great denial is the denial of physical reality, the materialness of the material world. The only Reality for Berkley is Ideas that are in the Mind of God. Berkley is thus not really of the breadth in dimension of the political thinker Locke or the historian Hume. Urmson does not dwell much on Berkley's life giving us the bare details and even less than that. For instance he tells us that Berkley has a wife and a son but really does not indicate anything about his personal character relation to his family etc.If the Past Masters series is to tell of the life as well as the work then this particular volume falls short. We do learn certain details about Berkley including the story of his failed American venture. Urmson is good at presenting a picture of the intellectual and scientific world Berkley found himself, and relating how Berkley's philosophy was a reaction to this world. He too tries to show how what seems to be a ' ridiculous idea on the surface' can be interpreted to make strong sense philosophically. This particular volume I am sure will be of great use for those who take interest in the close technical arguments around the subject of philosophical ' idealism.'

User [source: https--www.thriftbooks.com]

"Being in the company with a gentleman who thought fit to maintain Dr. Berkeley's ingenious philosophy, that nothing exists but as perceived by some mind; when the gentleman was going away, Dr. Johnson said to him, 'Pray, Sir, don't leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you, and then you will cease to exist.'" Taken out of context, the famous doctrine here ridiculed by Johnson, and its corollary, that there is no such thing as matter, are easy to misunderstand and underestimate. But by viewing Berkeley against a wider intellectual background than is customary, Urmson achieves an unusually sympathetic assessment of his philosophy. He sees Berkeley's work as a serious critical analysis of the scientific thought of Newton and his predecessors and of its metaphysical basis. He starts with the philosophy of science accepted from Galileo to Newton and uses this as a basis for his discussion of Berkeley's writings. He gives a clear account of the relationship between science and common sense and shows, too, that Berkeley anticipated by more than two centuries a version of utilitarianism usually thought of as belonging to our own time. James Opie Urmson (1915 - 2012) was a philosopher and classicist who spent most of his career at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a prolific author and expert on British analytic/linguistic philosophy, Berkeley, ethics, and Greek philosophy (especially Aristotle). Urmson and his co-editor G. J. Warnock performed an invaluable service to the development of "analytic" or "linguistic" philosophy by preparing for publication the papers of the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin. Urmson translated or wrote notes for a number of volumes of Aristotle, and commentaries on Aristotle's Physics by Simplicius, for the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series. His book Aristotle's Ethics was praised by no less than Ackrill and Moravcsik as an excellent introduction to Aristotle's Ethics.

[source: https--www.amazon.com]

--- Over (foto 2): J.O. Urmson ---

James Opie Urmson (4 March 1915 - 29 January 2012), usually cited as J. O. Urmson, was a philosopher and classicist who spent most of his professional career at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a prolific author and expert on a number of topics including British analytic/linguistic philosophy, George Berkeley, ethics, and Greek philosophy (especially Aristotle).

J. O. Urmson was born in Hornsea. He was named after his father, the Rev. James Opie Urmson (1881-1954), a Methodist Minister. Urmson was educated at Kingswood School, Bath (1928-1934) and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1934-38).

When World War II broke out, he joined the Army, where he served for 6 years. He was captured and spent three years in Germany as a prisoner of war, where he spent his time "playing bridge and doing mathematics". After the war, he was awarded the Military Cross.

After the war he was a student (i.e. a Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford from 1945 to 1955. During this period he lived in Monckton Cottage in Headington, Oxford.

In 1955 he accepted an appointment as Professor of Philosophy at Queen's College Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. In 1959 he returned to Oxford as a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and a Tutor in Philosophy. Except for visiting appointments in the United States (e.g. Visiting Associate Professor of philosophy at Princeton University in 1950-51), he remained at Oxford until his retirement, at which point he assumed the position of Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

Urmson and his co-editor G. J. Warnock performed an invaluable service to the development of "analytic" or "linguistic" philosophy by preparing for publication the papers of the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin.

After World War II, Urmson's book Philosophical Analysis (1956) - an overview of the development of analytic philosophy at Cambridge and Oxford universities between World War I and World War II - was influential in the post-war spread of analytic philosophy in Anglophone countries.

David Heyd records that "the history of supererogation in non-religious ethical theory" began with Urmson's 'seminal' "Saints and Heroes" (1958). This paper, according to Heyd, "opened the contemporary discussion of supererogation," without ever mentioning the term, "by challenging the traditional threefold classification of moral action: the obligatory, the permitted (or indifferent) and the prohibited."

Urmson translated or wrote notes for a number of volumes of Aristotle, and commentaries on Aristotle's Physics by Simplicius, for the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series published in the USA by Cornell University Press, in the UK initially by Duckworth, now by Bloomsbury, under the distinguished general editorship of Richard K.R. Sorabji. His book Aristotle's Ethics was praised by no less than J. L. Ackrill and Julius Moravcsik as an excellent introduction to Aristotle's Ethics.

Although, as Jonathan Ree notes, many of Urmson's writings "focus on theories about the nature of philosophy", Urmson holds that "on the whole the best philosophy is little affected by theory; the philosopher sees what needs doing and does it."

Edited volumes

• J. L. Austin How to do Things with Words
• J. L. Austin Philosophical Papers (joint editor with G. J. Warnock)
• Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers with Jonathan Ree (first edition 1960, second edition 1989, third edition 2004)
• The British Empiricists: Locke, Berkeley, Hume (with John Dunn and A. J. Ayer)

Translations

• Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics (translated David O. Ross, 1925; revised J. O. Urmson and J. L. Ackrill, 1980) Oxford University Press
• Simplicius: Corollaries on Place and Time Cornell University Press (June 1992) translated by J.O. Urmson
• On Aristotle's "Physics 3 by Simplicius, translated by J.O. Urmson & Peter Lautner, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8014-3903-2.

Books

• Philosophical Analysis: Its Development between the Two World Wars, Oxford University Press, 1956
• The Emotive Theory of Ethics (1968)
• The Greek Philosophical Vocabulary, Duckworth (1990)
• Berkeley Oxford University Press, 1982
• Aristotle's Ethics (1988) Blackwell Publishers

...

[source: wikipedia]

J.O. Urmson was Tutor in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK, and Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Stanford University, USA.

[source: https--www.bloomsbury.com/us/author/jo-urmson]

Professor J. O. Urmson

Oxford analytical philosopher of wideranging interests who wrote incisively on ethics, aesthetics, language and the history of thought [2012-03-16]

Professor J. O. Urmson was one of the ablest of Oxford's 20th-century philosophers and one of its most brilliant and most loved tutors, first at Christ Church, from 1945 to 1955, and later at Corpus Christi, from 1959 to 1978. From Kingswood School, Bath, James Opie Urmson went up to Corpus in 1934 to read Literae Humaniores, gaining firsts in Classical Mods in 1936 and Greats in 1938 and winning the University John Locke Scholarship in Mental Philosophy. He was elected a Senior Demy (Scholar) of Magdalen in 1938 and a Fellow by Examination in 1939.

During the Second World War he served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment during the withdrawal to Dunkirk, in North Africa and in Italy. ...

[source: https--www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-j-o-urmson-lq5c8wwtt3h]