British empiricists and abstract ideas

Abstract

The article aims to broaden the discussion about abstract ideas among the empiricist philosophers John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume. It is possible to notice a criticism of George Berkeley in his Treatise on the principles of human knowledge (1710) to John Locke in relation to the theme of general terms and abstract ideas dealt with in his Essay on human understanding (1689). This criticism by Berkeley seems to be consolidated in David Hume's Treatise of human nature (1738-1739), which endorses in the first part of his work a text related to general terms and abstract ideas. To better understand the discussion on the subject, the article will be basically divided into three main parts before its conclusion: 1) How Locke understands abstractions and general terms; 2) the attack by George Berkeley and his conception of abstract ideas and general terms, and finally 3) the position of David Hume corroborating the criticism of Berkeley and presenting a solution to the problems of the criticism of George Berkeley. no abstract)