Berkeley published An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, arguing that vision gives signs (like light and color) that we learn to connect with distance and shape through experience. This helped him challenge the idea that we directly perceive a mind-independent material world. The book became a stepping-stone to his later immaterialism.
Berkeley published A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Part I, claiming that sensible objects are ideas and that “material substance” is not needed to explain experience. A major aim was to dissolve skepticism and defend religion by grounding the regularity of experience in God’s activity. The work’s bold denial of mind-independent matter immediately made it a target for criticism and misunderstanding.
In A Discourse on Passive Obedience, Berkeley argued that people have a moral duty not to resist lawful authority, emphasizing obedience to negative commands (prohibitions). Although this is not a metaphysics text, it mattered for controversies around Berkeley because it showed he was building a larger system connecting ethics, religion, and how humans should live. Readers often judged his immaterialism alongside these broader religious and political commitments.
Berkeley published Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous to restate immaterialism in a more accessible, debate-driven format. The dialogues dramatized common objections—such as whether idealism collapses into skepticism—and responded by appealing to ordinary experience and God’s role in sustaining the order of ideas. This publication helped make the controversy clearer: the target was “material substance,” not the everyday reality of tables, trees, and pain.
With De Motu (On Motion), Berkeley criticized concepts like absolute space and absolute motion, arguing that some “abstract” theoretical entities were not clearly grounded in experience. While this essay focused on physics and the meaning of scientific terms, it connected to controversies about his idealism by reinforcing his suspicion of poorly understood abstractions. It also showed that his critiques applied beyond metaphysics to the sciences of his day.
Berkeley published Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher, a long dialogue defending Christianity against contemporary “free-thinkers.” The work mattered for immaterialism controversies because Berkeley tied his view of nature and perception to religious apologetics (defenses of faith), making some critics see his metaphysics as driven by theology. It also attracted direct replies, keeping Berkeley’s ideas in public debate.
Voltaire’s Letters concerning the English Nation (published first in English) helped spread debates about Locke, Newton, and British philosophy to a wider audience. Even when Berkeley was not the main focus, the book is part of the context in which idealism and its rivals were discussed across Europe. This broader readership increased the stakes for how Berkeley’s immaterialism was understood and criticized.
A substantially revised second edition of Principles of Human Knowledge appeared in London decades after the first edition. The update shows Berkeley continuing to defend and clarify immaterialism rather than treating it as a youthful experiment. Republishing also kept the controversy alive for a new generation of readers in the 1730s and beyond.
Berkeley published The Analyst, attacking the foundations of early calculus (then often framed in terms like “fluxions” and “infinitesimals”). The argument was partly rhetorical—challenging mathematicians who criticized religious “mysteries”—but it also raised real worries about unclear concepts and inconsistent reasoning. The intense printed responses that followed became known as the “Analyst controversy,” showing Berkeley’s broader method: demand clear ideas and accountable reasoning.
Berkeley published The Querist in parts, using a long series of questions to discuss Ireland’s economic and social problems. Although not a metaphysics text, it mattered for the controversies around his philosophy because it showed him applying the same plain-language style and reformist aims in public life. Berkeley’s reputation became that of a bishop-philosopher with a wide program, not only a defender of immaterialism.
Berkeley published Siris, beginning with a discussion of tar-water’s supposed medical benefits and moving into a connected “chain” of reflections on nature, spirit, and God. The book illustrates a late-stage shift in emphasis: rather than only arguing against matter, Berkeley explored how different levels of explanation might connect the everyday world to a divine source. For many readers, Siris complicated the earlier controversy by showing Berkeley’s idealism developing into a broader spiritual metaphysics.
Berkeley died on January 14, 1753, ending the period in which he personally defended, revised, and expanded his immaterialism in print. By then, his views had sparked sustained debate across metaphysics, theology, and even mathematics. After his death, the controversies continued in new forms as later philosophers argued over whether his approach led to skepticism, protected common sense, or demanded a different theory of perception.
George Berkeley's immaterialism and its controversies (1710–1753)