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  1.  93
    A metaphysics for the mob: the philosophy of George Berkeley.John Russell Roberts - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
    George Berkeley notoriously claimed that his immaterialist metaphysics was not only consistent with common sense but that it was also integral to its defense. Roberts argues that understanding the basic connection between Berkeley's philosophy and common sense requires that we develop a better understanding of the four principle components of Berkeley's positive metaphysics: The nature of being, the divine language thesis, the active/passive distinction, and the nature of spirits. Roberts begins by focusing on Berkeley's view of the nature of being. (...)
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  2. A Puzzle in the Three Dialogues and Its Platonic Resolution.John Russell Roberts - 2018 - In Stefan Storrie (ed.), Berkeley's Three Dialogues: New Essays. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 146-159.
  3. Berkeley on Language.John Russell Roberts - 2017 - In Richard Brook & Bertil Belfrage (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Berkeley. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
  4. Axiarchism and Selectors.John Russell Roberts - 2014 - Faith and Philosophy 31 (4):412-421.
    This essay offers a defense of Axiarchism's answer to the question, "Why does the world exit?" against prominent objections leveled against it by Derek Parfit. Parfit rejects the Axiarchist answer while abstracting from it his own Selector strategy. I argue that the abstraction fails, and that even if we were to regard Axiarchism as an instance of a Selector hypothesis, we should regard it as the only viable one. I also argue that Parfit's abstraction leads him to mistake the nature (...)
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  5. A Mystery at the Heart of Berkeley's Philosophy.John Russell Roberts - 2010 - Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 5:214-46.
    There is a problem regarding God and perception right at the heart of Berkeley ’s metaphysics. With respect to this problem, I will argue for : It is intractable. Berkeley has no solution to this problem, and neither can we hope to offer one on his behalf. However, I will also argue for : The truth of need not be seen as threatening the viability of Berkeley ’s metaphysics. In fact, it may even be seen as speaking in its favor.
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  6. Mental illness, motivation and moral commitment.John Russell Roberts - 2001 - Philosophical Quarterly 51 (202):41-59.
    I present a dilemma which depressive behavioral pathology poses for both Humean and non-Humean theories of motivation and value. Although the dilemma shows that neither theory can be considered adequate in its standard form, I argue that if the Humean theory is modified so as to embrace a richer notion of satisfaction than it currently does, it can solve the problem which depression poses for it and, thus, the dilemma can be avoided. Embracing a richer notion of satisfaction not only (...)
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  7. Berkeley on Evil.John Russell Roberts - forthcoming - In Douglas Hedley (ed.), The History of Evil IV: The History of Evil in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Acumen Publishing.
    This essay consists of two parts. Part I offers an explanation of Berkeley's understanding of the relationship between materialism and evil. Berkeley regards materialism as the chief instrumental cause of evil in the world. It is the belief in matter that encourages us to believe that God is not immediately, intimately present in every aspect of our life. Immaterialism, by contrast, makes God's immediate presence vivid and thereby serves to undermine the motivation to vice. Part II locates Berkeley's view on (...)
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  8. A Mystery at the Heart of Berkeley's Metaphysics.John Russell Roberts - 2010 - In Daniel Garber & Steven Nadler (eds.), Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume V. Oxford University Press.
     
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  9. (1 other version)Whichcote and the Cambridge Platonists on Human Nature: An Interpretation and Defense.John Russell Roberts - 2012 - Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy VI.
    Draft version of essay. ABSTRACT: Benjamin Whichcote developed a distinctive account of human nature centered on our moral psychology. He believed that this view of human nature, which forms the foundation of “Cambridge Platonism,” showed that the demands of reason and faith are not merely compatible but dynamically supportive of one another. I develop an interpretation of this oft-neglected and widely misunderstood account of human nature and defend its viability against a key objection.
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  10. Innate Ideas without Abstract Ideas: An Essay on Berkeley's Platonism.John Russell Roberts - manuscript
    Draft. Berkeley denied the existence of abstract ideas and any faculty of abstraction. At the same time, however, he embraced innate ideas and a faculty of pure intellect. This paper attempts to reconcile the tension between these commitments by offering an interpretation of Berkeley's Platonism.
     
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  11. Reply to Seth Bordner’s “Berkeley’s Defense of Common Sense”.John Russell Roberts - manuscript
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  12. Mob Metaphysics: An Interpretation of Berkeley's Idealism.John Russell Roberts - 2002 - Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    This dissertation defends Berkeley's spirit-based Idealism by way of providing an interpretation of the fundamental distinction of his metaphysics, the "active/passive" distinction. I argue that Berkeley developed a distinctively normative reading of "activity" and "passivity" during the exploration of the limits of Lockean-style empiricism recorded in his preparatory notebooks, the Philosophical Commentaries, limits that became especially apparent in connection with the notion of the self or "spirit". After considering and rejecting a proto-Humean "bundle theory" of the self, Berkeley formulated the (...)
     
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  13.  67
    ‘Strange impotence of men’: Immaterialism, Anaemic Agents, and Immanent Causation.John Russell Roberts - 2010 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 18 (3):411-431.