Berkeley and Spinoza

Abstract

There is a widespread assumption that Berkeley and Spinoza have little in common, even though early Jesuit critics in France often linked them. Later commentators (C. S. Peirce, H. Bergson, G. Brykman) have also recognized their similarities. My essay focuses on how (1) Berkeley's comments on the Arnauld-Malebranche debate regarding objective and formal reality and (2) his treatment of god's creation of finite minds within the order of nature relate his theory of knowledge to his doctrine in a way similar to that of Spinoza. Copyright 2010 P.U.F. All rights reserved.