ABSTRACT
A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge: wherein the Chief Causes of Error and Difficulty in the Sciences, with the grounds of Scepticism, Atheism, and Irreligion, are inquired. George Berkeley shows himself just as concerned with skepticism as he is with atheism. Berkeley's most explicit discussion of skepticism, it is crucial that sensible objects are immediately perceived. While Margaret Atherton may think that such fallibility does not inevitably lead to skepticism, it is clear that Berkeley would not accept it as a refutation of skepticism. Unfortunately, Berkeley never fully spells out how his theory delivers the 'reality and perfection of human knowledge' and thus refutes skepticism. Atherton thinks that since cherries and coaches are collections of ideas and thus do not exist "without the mind," though they are "independent of any particular mind", this skepticism is avoided.
