PHILOSOPHER

George Berkeley

1685 - 1753

Photo of George Berkeley

Icon of person George Berkeley

George Berkeley ( BARK-lee; 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are ideas perceived by the mind and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism.In 1709, Berkeley published his first major work, An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, in which he discussed the limitations of human vision and advanced the theory that the proper objects of sight are not material objects, but light and colour. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of George Berkeley has received more than 1,817,803 page views. His biography is available in 87 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 83 in 2019). George Berkeley is the 74th most popular philosopher (down from 66th in 2019), the 6th most popular biography from Ireland and the most popular Irish Philosopher.

Berkeley is most famous for his theory of esse est percipi or "to be is to be perceived."

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 76.01

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 87

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 12.17

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.93

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of George Berkelies by language

Over the past year George Berkeley has had the most page views in the with 218,552 views, followed by Spanish (65,815), and Russian (37,464). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Georgian (181.94%), Cornish (150.49%), and Volapük (75.45%)

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, George Berkeley ranks 74 out of 1,267. Before him are Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Ludwig Feuerbach, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Zeno of Citium, Karl Jaspers, and Rudolf Steiner. After him are Ramakrishna, Jürgen Habermas, Xenophanes, Nagarjuna, Carl von Clausewitz, and Nicholas of Cusa.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1685, George Berkeley ranks 4. Before him are Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. After him are Domenico Scarlatti, Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Brook Taylor, Jean-Marc Nattier, Johann Maria Farina, Edward England, John Gay, and Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve. Among people deceased in 1753, George Berkeley ranks 1. After him are Balthasar Neumann, Hans Sloane, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Gottfried Silbermann, Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, Charles August, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg, Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Johann Nicolaus Bach, and Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington.

Others Born in 1685

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Others Deceased in 1753

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In Ireland

Among people born in Ireland, George Berkeley ranks 6 out of 549. Before him are Oscar Wilde (1854), Jonathan Swift (1667), James Joyce (1882), Robert Boyle (1627), and George Bernard Shaw (1856). After him are Samuel Beckett (1906), Michael Gambon (1940), Francis Bacon (1909), Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769), Bram Stoker (1847), and Edmund Burke (1729).

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Among PHILOSOPHERS In Ireland

Among philosophers born in Ireland, George Berkeley ranks 1. After him are John Scotus Eriugena (810), James Ussher (1581), John Toland (1670), G. E. M. Anscombe (1919), William Thompson (1775), and Philip Pettit (1945).

Irish born Philosophers

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