Ether, animal spirit and causality in George Berkeley’s Siris: an imaterialist vision of the analogy between macro and microcosmos

Abstract

Berkeley's thought was developed as a refusal of materialism and skepticism that in his opinion menaced philosophy. However, his intellectual interests were not confined to this aim. Scientific topics were also included in Berkeley's agenda. In the works concerned with scientific issues, the omnipresence of his metaphysics is to be found. In Siris, a peculiar work in the Berkelian corpus, reflexions about the natural world are exhibited in explicit link with a metaphysical frame. Berkeley exposes a view of nature akin to neoplatonism and stoicism and ends his work with an anthem in honor of ancient and neoplatonic philosophy. Several scientific topics are dealt with, such as the analogy between macrocosm and microcosm, that it is exposed as an indisputably real relation. That link between man and world is claimed to be possible by the ether, an entity to which special properties are ascribed. This article aims to expose how Berkeley conceives the analogy macrocosm and microcosm by departing from the philosophical tradition and the scientific theories of his time. In so doing, he links the ancient analogy with the new worldview.