A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge...With Prolegomena, and with Annotations, Select, Translated, and Original
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874. First American Edition. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. 424 pages.
This is the first American edition of George Berkeley's seminal work on the nature of human perception. He deals extensively with the question of whether objects continue to exist in the absence of someone to perceive them.
The philosophical question, "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?" has its origins, if not its exact phrasing, in this work. For example, on page 218 Berkeley does reference trees as objects of perception to make his point, to wit: "The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden... no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them."
Near fine.
Item #1604
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