The Works of George Berkeley Author:George Berkeley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: In the First Dialogue, the party endeavour to find some general principles regarding Free-thinkers, and the matters in debate between them and their opponents, i... more »n which they can all agree. At the end of this Dialogue, Alciphron is made to acknowledge that beliefs which are indispensable to the happiness of men and to the common weal are true and genuine principles of human action, and, therefore, to be esteemed natural to man. He had previously been disposed to argue (sect. 9), that the sensual appetites and passions, in which all mankind undoubtedly agree, are the only real constituents of human nature; and that beliefs in Morality, Deity, and a Future Life have been artificially produced, by custom and education. These, he alleges, are not found to be invariably the same in all nations and ages; whereas, for a principle to be ' natural' to the human mind, it must appear in us originally, and be found always (sect. 14). What naturalness consists in, and by what marks it may be recognised, are, accordingly, discussed in the next place (sect. 14—16). Alciphron is obliged to allow that beliefs which fail to shew themselves upon our first entrance into the world, and which are not developed in every human being, may, nevertheless, be the constitution of human nature. He grants at last to Euphranor, that the proper rule and measure of moral truths is their tendency to promote the general good of mankind; and that, since reasonable creatures were made for one another, each should consider himself as part of a whole, to the common good of which he is bound to contribute, if he would really live ' according to nature.' The question to be discussed in the Dialogues that follow resolves itself, accordingly, into this:—Have beliefs in Moral Order, Providence, and a Future Life, from which F...« less