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Berkeley definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who opposed the materialism of Thomas Hobbes (1685-1753) [syn: Berkeley, Bishop Berkeley, George Berkeley]
2: a city in California on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay; site of the University of California at Berkeley

Merriam Webster's

I. biographical name George 1685-1753 Irish bishop & philosopher II. biographical name Sir William 1606-1677 colonial governor of Virginia III. geographical name city W California on San Francisco Bay N of Oakland population 102,743

Britannica Concise

City (pop., 1996 est.: 103,000), W California. Located on San Francisco Bay, the city was founded as Oceanview in 1853 and selected as a campus site by the College (later Univ.) of California. The college, named for the philosopher G. Berkeley, opened in 1873. See also Univ. of California..Irish bishop, philosopher, and social activist. He worked principally at Trinity College, Dublin (to 1713), and as bishop of Cloyne (1734-52). He is best known for his contention that, for material objects, to be is to be perceived ("Esse est percipi"). His religious calling may have facilitated his qualifying his position by claiming that, even if no human perceives an object, God does, thereby ensuring the continued existence of the physical world when not perceived by any finite being. With J. Locke and D. Hume, he was one of the founders of modern empiricism. Unlike Locke, he did not believe that there exists any material substance external to the mind, but rather that objects exist only as collections of sense-data. His works include An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710), and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713). He spent part of his career in America, where he advocated educating Indians and blacks. Berkeley, Cal., is named for him.