ABSTRACT
Berkeley had few disciples, for not many philosophers were vigorous enough to follow him all the way; and one cannot be a true Berkeleyan unless he/she follows the master all the way. His colleague, Arthur Collier, is perhaps the only other orthodox Berkeleyan: in 1713 he published a book entitled Clavis universalis, or a New Enquiry after Truth, being a Demonstration of the Nonexistence or Impossibility of an External World. A thinker who owed nothing directly to Berkeley, and who had probably never heard of him, was the Italian Giambattista Vico, an idealist of great originality who applied his theories to the problems of society and history, and outlined the principles of a New Science from which modern philosophers, particularly the Italian idealists Croce and Gentile, have drawn much inspiration. The French critic, Remy de Gourmont, observed that ‘very simple ideas are within the reach of very complicated minds only’.
