Abstract

I begin this paper by looking at what Berkeley says about the nature and role of archetypes. I find that it is not clear from his writings just how God’s ideas—which are what Berkelean archetypes are, I show—are related to our ideas. To resolve this, I turn to Berkeley’s account of error. I then return to the matter of the relation between God’s ideas and our own, and conclude that in contrast to our ideas, which are passive by nature, God’s ideas are active.