Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous was the final statement by the empiricist philosopher George Berkeley, Bishop of Coyne, (1685-1753) on his views concerning subjective idealism, couched in the famous statement ‘esse is percipi’ - to be is to be perceived (mixing Latin with a bit of English was Berkeley’s idiosyncrasy!). In his first book on the subject, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Berkeley proposed that the physical world exists only in the experiences minds have of it. It was published in 1710, but encountered robust criticism. In answer to this, Berkeley re-wrote the work in the form of three dialogues, casting himself as Philonous (derived from the Greek ‘lover of the mind’) in debate with Hylas (derived from the Greek for ‘matter’). Read more
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