'This is a lightly edited transcript of a text in Berlin’s papers. No attempt has been made to bring it to a fully publishable form, but this version is posted here for the convenience of scholars. A great deal more work is needed before the transcript is faithful to the text in every detail.The bracketed numbers refer to the pages of the original text, which is partly typed and partly in MS.'
At The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library.
"Of course he knew a real gold coin or a real noise or a real fire as well as anyone else. Fires singed and burnt you and the idea of fire didn’t; a real gold coin buys something, the idea of one, even the painting of one, doesn’t, etc. He was saying nothing paradoxical or odd, he was saying only what everyone knew to be true. But he admitted that the words in which he chose to say it might sound odd to some people. Why then did he do it?"
See Berkeley, The Principles of Human Knowledge, Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 35, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 33.
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