In this first modern critical assessment of the place of mathematics inBerkeleys philosophy and Berkeleys place in the history of mathematicsDouglas M. Jesseph ... » 

In this first modern critical assessment of the place of mathematics inBerkeleys philosophy and Berkeleys place in the history of mathematicsDouglas M. Jesseph provides a bold reinterpretation of Berkeleys work. Jessephchallenges the prevailing view that Berkeleys mathematical writings areperipheral to his philosophy and argues that mathematics is in fact central tohis thought developing out of his critique of abstraction. Jessephs argumentsituates Berkeleys ideas within the larger historical and intellectual contextof the Scientific Revolution.Jesseph begins with Berkeleys radical opposition to the received view ofmathematics in the philosophy of the late seventeenth and early eighteenthcenturies when mathematics was considered a science of abstractions. Sincethis view seriously conflicted with Berkeleys critique of abstract ideasJesseph contends that he was forced to come up with a nonabstract philosophy ofmathematics. Jesseph examines Berkeleys unique treatments of geometry andarithmetic and his famous critique of the calculus in The Analyst.By putting Berkeleys mathematical writings in the perspective of his largerphilosophical project and examining their impact on eighteenthcentury Britishmathematics Jesseph makes a major contribution to philosophy and to thehistory and philosophy of science. «