Berkeley on Voluntary Motion: A Conservationist Account

Ruch Filozoficzny 74 (4):71–98 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A plausible reading of Berkeley’s view of voluntary motion is occasionalism; this, however, leads to a specious conclusion against his argument of human action. Differing from an unqualified occasionalist reading, I consider the alternative reading that Berkeley is a conservationist regarding bodily motion by the human mind at will. That is, finite minds (spirits) immediately cause motions in their body parts, albeit under the divine conservation. My argument then comports with the conservationist reading from three perspectives: (i) theodicy that the human mind is held liable for sinful actions; (ii) an account of the human mind influencing other minds; and (iii) an improper but necessary directing principle of the human mind. This article is a stepping stone to grasping why the conservationist reading is more coherent than the occasionalist one.

Similar books and articles

Berkeley, human agency and divine concurrentism.Jeffrey K. McDonough - 2008 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (4):pp. 567-590.
Berkeley's Immaterialist Account of Action.Patrick Fleming - 2006 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (3):415-429.
Berkeley's immaterialist account of action.Patrick Fleming - 2006 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (3):415-429.
Matter and Spirit in Berkeley.Robert James Mckim - 1982 - Dissertation, Yale University
Cartesian causation: Continuous, instantaneous, overdetermined.Geoffrey Gorham - 2004 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 42 (4):389-423.
Berkeley and Gentile.Daniele Bertini - 2007 - Idealistic Studies 37 (1):43-50.
Reply to Professor Mirarchi.Bruce Silver - 1977 - Journal of the History of Ideas 38 (4):714.
Berkeley's case against realism about dynamics.Lisa Downing - 1995 - In Robert G. Muehlmann (ed.), Berkeley's Metaphysics: Structural, Interpretive, and Critical Essays. The Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 197--214.
Berkeley on the “Twofold state of things”.Melissa Frankel - 2016 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 80 (1):43-60.
Was Berkeley a Subjective Idealist?G. Callahan - 2015 - Collingwood and British Idealism Studies 21 (2):157-184.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-02-12

Downloads
857 (#15,347)

6 months
123 (#24,804)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Takaharu Oda
Southern University of Science and Technology

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Consequentialism.Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Responsibility From the Margins.David Shoemaker - 2015 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Stoicism.Dirk Baltzly - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Descartes on Causation.Tad M. Schmaltz - 2006 - Studia Leibnitiana 38 (2):248-250.

View all 39 references / Add more references