Berkeley

Abstract

Although his work on religious language is often overlooked, George Berkeley offers the most detailed and important account of any of the major early modern philosophers. His ideas on religious language are elaborated in his 1732 dialogue Alciphron, but one of the key insights, that certain terms express and evoke non-cognitive attitudes, was already in place in 1710, when he wrote A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge: ‘Besides, the communicating of ideas marked by words is not the chief and only end of language, as is commonly supposed. There are other ends, as the raising of some passion, the exciting to, or deterring from an action, the putting the mind in some particular disposition’ (1949, p. 37). Berkeley was also the first philosopher of the early modern period to draw attention to the theoretical significance of language that is not representational. However, it is only in his later work Alciphron, specifically in his treatment of religious language, that Berkeley combines the idea that certain religious expressions are not representational with a positive expressive/evocative theory of their function. It is this combination that makes Berkeley such an important early figure in the development of attitude theories of religious language. In the pages that follow, I briefly consider the background to Berkeley’s account in John Locke’s theory of language, then set out and evaluate what Berkeley has to say on religious language.