Ideas, relations, and signs : 'intuition' and 'symbolic substitution'in Berkeley's theory of knowledge of nature

Abstract

The chief aim of this thesis is to develop an interpretation of Berkeley's theory of knowledge of nature through clarification of two prominent motifs which underlie it 'intuition' and 'symbolic substitution'. I regard these motifs as respectively characterizing two distinguishable stages of his thought about knowledge of nature. The 'intuition' motif is developed in the early period in his project of rebutting scepticism, conceiving knowledge of nature in terms of knowledge of 'ideas'. The motif of 'symbolic substitution' is only nascent in the early period and is fully developed through the middle to the late period. The latter motif grew out of Berkeley’s attempt to account for general knowledge of nature, and conceives knowledge of nature in tenns of knowledge of 'the laws of nature'. According to Berkeley’s view in the middle-period works, scientific knowledge of nature is 'knowledge of relations' by symbolic representation.