Alciphron (book)

Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is an philosophical dialogue by the 18th-century Irish philosopher George Berkeley wherein Berkeley combated the arguments of free-thinkers such as Mandeville and Shaftesbury against the Christian religion. It was first published in 1732.

Alciphron title page (1732).

The dialogue is primarily between four characters, the free-thinkers Alciphron and Lysicles, Berkeley's spokesman Euphranor, and Crito, who serves as a spokesman for traditional Christianity. The mostly-silent narrator of the dialogue is given the name Dion.

Notes

1. See David Kline, "Berkeley's Divine Language Argument" in Ernest Sosa, ed., Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987), repr. in David Berman, ed., Alciphron in Focus (London: Routledge, 1993).
2. Anthony Flew, "Was Berkeley a Precursor of Wittgenstein?" in W. B. Todd, ed. Hume and the Enlightenment: Essays Presented to Ernest Campbell Mossner (Edinburgh: The University Press, 1974), repr. in Berman, ed., Alciphron.
3. Margaret Bald (14 May 2014). Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds. Infobase Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-8160-7148-7.
4. WorldCat https://www.worldcat.org/title/alciphron-or-the-minute-philosopher-in-seven-dialogues-containing-an-apology-for-the-christian-religion-against-those-who-are-called-free-thinkers/oclc/833957138
5. David Berman, ed., Alciphron in Focus (London: Routledge, 1993).
6. David Berman, ed., Alciphron in Focus (London: Routledge, 1993).

External links

• Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher 1803 ed. from Google Books
• Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher (The Works of George Berkeley. Ed. by Alexander Campbell Fraser. In 4 Volumes. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901) from Internet Archive
• Paraphrase of Alciphron at Early Modern Texts