The Neo-Berkeleyan Whitehead
Université de Rouen Normandie, Bogdan Rusu
Revue roumaine de philosophie December 1, 2025 DOI: 10.59277/rrp.2025.69.2.02 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Metaphysics Appropriation Natural archaeology Irish Perception Epistemology Natural philosophy Nominalism Philosophy of language |
| Key points | Argues that Whitehead's philosophy of organism in its earliest configuration rests on a recast of Berkeley's immaterialism, and that Whitehead took Berkeley as a model, appreciating his critique of the seventeenth-century scheme of ideas and finding suggestions for a new philosophy of nature and perception. |
Abstract
The thesis of this paper is that, in his first metaphysical work, Whitehead took Berkeley as his model. He stopped perceiving him as a subjective idealist and he leaned to consider him an objective/absolute idealist. He became appreciative of some positive contributions of the Irish philosopher. While continuing to appreciate Berkeley’s critique of the seventeenth century scheme of ideas, Whitehead found in Berkeley suggestions for a new philosophy of nature and of perception, in line with Berkeley’s immaterialism. The creative appropriation of these suggestions derived from Berkeley was at the same time an addition aimed to improve the neorealistic philosophy of perception Whitehead had adopted and restated, in his works on natural philosophy, with the help of the concepts of event, object, and ingression. My conclusion is that Whitehead’s philosophy of organism, in its earliest configuration, in SMW, rests on a recast of Berkeley’s immaterialism.
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