Edward Little

Berkeley's Tree: a History of a Metaphysical Problem Edward Little

"I was thinking of a tree in a solitary place, where no one was present to see it." These words of the philosopher, George Berkeley, have become the symbol of ultimate metaphysical questions: what constitutes existence? Are ideas and thoughts real? Is mind separate from brain? Traced here through more than two thousand years, this is a study of ancient and modern metaphysics. It was the basis of two "slow-reading" lists sponsored by Lance Fletcher and hosted by the author on the Internet at , for Plato's Parmenides and Aristotle's Metaphysics from 1995 to 2002. Berkeley's Tree is aimed at readers of all sorts, from the amateur or merely curious to the professional or experienced scholar. It aims to bring fresh ideas to the study of philosophy and psychology.