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March 12, 1753

 

George Berkeley, the Anglo-Irish philosopher, died on his birthday, March 12, in 1753.

Here is a excerpt from a book called 

ALCIPHRON: OR THE MINUTE PHILOSOPHER: IN SEVEN DIALOGUES; AN APOLOGY FOR THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE CALLED FREE-THINKERS. (I guess in the 18th century you got to use multiple subtitles.)

We find him demonstrating herein the meaning of the word 'natural,' using a feline example.

"For a thing to be natural, for instance to the mind of man, it must appear originally therein, it must be universally in all men, it must be invariably the same in all nations and ages. These limitations of original, universal, and invariable, exclude all those notions found in the human mind, which are the effect of custom and education. The case is the same with respect to all other species of beings. A cat, for example, hath a natural inclination to pursue a mouse, because it agrees with the fore mentioned marks. But if a cat be taught to play tricks, you will not say those tricks are natural. For the same reason, if upon a plum-tree peaches and apricots are engrafted, nobody will say they are the natural growth of the plum-tree...."

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