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Arthur Collier
Arthur Collier (12 October 1680 – September 1732) was an English Anglican priest and philosopher who wrote about the non-existence of an absolute external world.
Collier was born at the rectory of Steeple Langford, Wiltshire. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in July 1697, but in October 1698 he and his brother William became members of Balliol. His father having died in 1697, it was arranged that the family living of Langford Magna should be given to Arthur as soon as he was old enough.
Having graduated from Oxford and been made a priest, Collier was presented to the benefice of Steeple Langford in 1704, holding it until his death in 1732. His sermons show no traces of his bold theological speculations, and he seems to have been faithful in the discharge of his duty. He was in financial difficulties (some say due to his wife), from which at last he was obliged to free himself by selling the reversion of the Langford advowson to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He and the family moved to Salisbury where Jane and Margaret Collier were born.
His philosophical opinions grew out of a diligent study of Descartes and Malebranche. John Norris also strongly influenced him by his An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701–1704). It is remarkable that Collier makes no reference to Locke, and shows no sign of having any knowledge of his works. As early as 1703 he seems to have become convinced of the non-existence of an absolute external world, which would have no relation to a perceiving observer. In 1712 he wrote two essays, which are still in manuscript, one on substance and accident, and the other called Clavis Philosophica. His chief work appeared in 1713, under the title Clavis Universalis: or, A New Inquiry after Truth. Being a Demonstration of the Non-Existence, or Impossibility, of an External World (printed privately, Edinburgh, 1836, and reprinted in Metaphysical Tracts, 1837, edited by Sam. Parr). It was favourably mentioned by Reid, Stewart and others, was frequently referred to by the Leibnitzians, and was translated into German by Johann Christian Eschenbach the Elder in 1756, Berkeley's Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Theory of Vision preceded it by three and four years respectively, but there is no evidence that they were known to Collier before the publication of his book.
Collier married Margaret the daughter of Nicholas Johnson who was the army's paymaster and his wife who was a sister of Sir Stephen Fox. He had four children who survived him. Arthur was a lawyer who died in 1777; Charles became a colonel; Jane Collier was a writer and Margaret Collier travelled.
His views are grounded on two presuppositions:
The former is the basis of the negative part of his argument; the latter supplies him with all the positive account he has to give, and that is meagre enough. The Clavis consists of two parts. After explaining that he will use the term external world in the sense of absolute, self-existent, independent matter, he attempts in the first part to prove that the visible world is not external, by showing first, that the seeming externality of a visible object is no proof of real externality, and second, that a visible object, as such, is not external.
The image of a centaur seems as much external to the mind as any object of sense; and since the difference between imagination and perception is only one of degree, God could so act upon the mind of a person imagining a centaur, that he would perceive it as vividly as any object can be seen. Similar illustrations are used to prove the second proposition, that a visible object, as such, is not external.
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Arthur Collier
Arthur Collier (12 October 1680 – September 1732) was an English Anglican priest and philosopher who wrote about the non-existence of an absolute external world.
Collier was born at the rectory of Steeple Langford, Wiltshire. He entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in July 1697, but in October 1698 he and his brother William became members of Balliol. His father having died in 1697, it was arranged that the family living of Langford Magna should be given to Arthur as soon as he was old enough.
Having graduated from Oxford and been made a priest, Collier was presented to the benefice of Steeple Langford in 1704, holding it until his death in 1732. His sermons show no traces of his bold theological speculations, and he seems to have been faithful in the discharge of his duty. He was in financial difficulties (some say due to his wife), from which at last he was obliged to free himself by selling the reversion of the Langford advowson to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He and the family moved to Salisbury where Jane and Margaret Collier were born.
His philosophical opinions grew out of a diligent study of Descartes and Malebranche. John Norris also strongly influenced him by his An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World (1701–1704). It is remarkable that Collier makes no reference to Locke, and shows no sign of having any knowledge of his works. As early as 1703 he seems to have become convinced of the non-existence of an absolute external world, which would have no relation to a perceiving observer. In 1712 he wrote two essays, which are still in manuscript, one on substance and accident, and the other called Clavis Philosophica. His chief work appeared in 1713, under the title Clavis Universalis: or, A New Inquiry after Truth. Being a Demonstration of the Non-Existence, or Impossibility, of an External World (printed privately, Edinburgh, 1836, and reprinted in Metaphysical Tracts, 1837, edited by Sam. Parr). It was favourably mentioned by Reid, Stewart and others, was frequently referred to by the Leibnitzians, and was translated into German by Johann Christian Eschenbach the Elder in 1756, Berkeley's Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge and Theory of Vision preceded it by three and four years respectively, but there is no evidence that they were known to Collier before the publication of his book.
Collier married Margaret the daughter of Nicholas Johnson who was the army's paymaster and his wife who was a sister of Sir Stephen Fox. He had four children who survived him. Arthur was a lawyer who died in 1777; Charles became a colonel; Jane Collier was a writer and Margaret Collier travelled.
His views are grounded on two presuppositions:
The former is the basis of the negative part of his argument; the latter supplies him with all the positive account he has to give, and that is meagre enough. The Clavis consists of two parts. After explaining that he will use the term external world in the sense of absolute, self-existent, independent matter, he attempts in the first part to prove that the visible world is not external, by showing first, that the seeming externality of a visible object is no proof of real externality, and second, that a visible object, as such, is not external.
The image of a centaur seems as much external to the mind as any object of sense; and since the difference between imagination and perception is only one of degree, God could so act upon the mind of a person imagining a centaur, that he would perceive it as vividly as any object can be seen. Similar illustrations are used to prove the second proposition, that a visible object, as such, is not external.