George Pappas

2025-09-11T05:40:07Z

80.167.174.252: I have added his birth date, and the date of his death; the information is from his obituary (link attached)

{{Short description|American philosopher}}
{{for|the American bowler|George Pappas (bowler)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = Western philosophy
|era = [[Contemporary philosophy]]
|image =
|name = George Sotiros Pappas
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1942}}
|birth_place =
|death_date =
|death_place =
|school_tradition =
|main_interests = [[Epistemology]], early [[modern philosophy]], [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]] scholarship
|notable_ideas =
|influences =
|influenced =
|signature =
|awards = International Berkeley Essay Prize (1993), ''emeritus'' professor
}}
'''George Sotiros Pappas''' (4 May 1942-3 September 2025) is a professor of [[philosophy]] at [[Ohio State University]].<ref>[http://philosophy.osu.edu/people/person.cfm?ID=1292 Departmental profile at OSU] [source: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/inquirer/name/george-pappas-obituary?] id=59391458{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914084237/http://philosophy.osu.edu/people/person.cfm?ID=1292 |date=2007-09-14 }}</ref> Pappas specializes in [[epistemology]], the history of [[early modern philosophy]], [[philosophy of religion]] and [[metaphysics]]. He is of Greek and English origin.

He is the author of the ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' entry on "[[Internalism and externalism|Internalist versus Externalist]]" conceptions of [[Theory of justification|epistemic justification]].<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justep-intext/ ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' article]</ref>

He was co-editor (with [[Marshall Swain]]) of ''Essays on Knowledge and Justification'' (1978), an anthology of essays relating to the [[Gettier problem]]<ref>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/gettier.htm#H15 Gettier Problem bibliography at the ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'']</ref> used as a core text in undergraduate [[epistemology]] courses.<ref>[http://www.ditext.com/clay/morris1.html Suggested epistemology reading list]</ref>

Pappas is an editorial consultant of [[Berkeley Studies]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://people.hsc.edu/berkeleystudies/editorial.php
| title = Berkeley Studies: Editorial Staff
| access-date = 2011-01-16
| publisher = [[Hampden–Sydney College]]
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101110022451/http://people.hsc.edu/berkeleystudies/editorial.php
| archive-date = 2010-11-10
| url-status = dead
}}</ref>

== Studies in Berkeley's philosophy ==
Pappas is known{{by whom|date=August 2019}} to be a leading Berkeley scholar; his essay "Berkeley and Scepticism"<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pappas |first=G.S. |title=Berkeley and Scepticism |journal=[[Philosophy and Phenomenological Research]] |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=133–149 |year=1999 |doi= 10.2307/2653461|jstor=2653461 }}</ref> was in 1993 awarded the International Berkeley Prize.<ref>See: [http://www.rochester.edu/college/PHL/Berkeleywinners.html Berkeley Prize Winners].<br />The annual International Berkeley Essay Prize competition was established by [[Colin Murray Turbayne]] and his wife in 1990.</ref> Pappas is a regular participant of International Berkeley Conferences.<ref>[http://georgeberkeley.tamu.edu/conferences.html International Berkeley Conferences] {{webarchive|url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160518110950/http://georgeberkeley.tamu.edu/conferences.html |date=2016-05-18 }}</ref> At one such conference, celebrating the 300th anniversary of George Berkeley's birth, Pappas propounded a new approach to the relationship between Berkeley's anti-abstractionism and "esse est percipi"<ref>"To be is to be perceived." A core proposition of Berkeley's ontology.</ref> principle. On Pappas' reading, Berkeley's two theses — that there are no abstract ideas and that sensible objects must be perceived in order to exist — entail one another.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Pappas |first=G.S. |chapter=Abstract ideas and the 'esse is percipi' thesis |editor-first=D. |editor-last=Berman |title=George Berkeley: Essays and replies |publisher=Irish Academic Press |location=Dublin |year=1985 |isbn=0-7165-2395-7 |pages=47–62 |conference=Proceedings of International Berkeley Conference in Dublin, 1985 |ref={{harvid|Essays and replies|1985}}}}</ref>

{{blockquote|text = Pappas' formulation of the relationship between these two propositions is ingenious and merits his verdict that it is a 'very exciting result' ... So far as I know, his thesis is original. Some writers, to be sure, have some close to suggesting that the first proposition is a necessary condition for the truth of the second, but I cannot think of a commentator who holds that it is both a necessary and sufficient condition. |author= Avrum Stroll|source= Two lines of argumentation in Berkeley's ''Principles'': a reply to George Pappas. In {{harvnb|Essays and replies|1985|p=140}}}}

Pappas' interpretation of Berkeley's '''esse'' is ''percipi''' thesis has sparked much discussion.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Stroll |first=Avrum |title=Two lines of argumentation in Berkeley's Principles: a reply to George S. Pappas}} In {{harvnb|Essays and replies|1985|pp=139–145}}<br />- McKim, Robert. "Abstraction and Immaterialism: Recent Interpretations", ''[[Berkeley Studies|Berkeley Newsletter]]'' '''15''' (1997–1998): 1–13.</ref> In 1989, the Garland Publishing Company brought out a 15-volume collection of major works on Berkeley; Pappas' paper "Abstract ideas and the 'esse is percipi' thesis" was included in the third volume,<ref>w Doney (ed), ''Berkeley on abstraction and abstract ideas'', N.Y.; L.: Garland, 1989. — XVII, 434 p. — (Philosophy of George Berkeley; 3; A Garland series)</ref> as it was considered to be a significant contribution to Berkeley scholarship.

Pappas developed his treatment of Berkeley's "esse est percipi" principle<ref>{{harvnb|Pappas|2000|pp=255–8. Ind.: p.257–261. (See chapter 5 ''Esse is percipi principle'')}}</ref> to repudiate the "inherence interpretation of Berkeley", upon which Edwin E. Allaire, among others, elaborated.<ref>{{cite journal
|last1=Allaire
|first1=Edwin B.
|year=1963
|title=Berkeley's Idealism
|journal=[[Theoria (philosophy journal)|Theoria]]
|volume=XXIX
|issue=3
|pages=229–44
|format=DjVu
|access-date=2011-01-16
|url=http://su-ltd.mylivepage.ru/file/2716/6138_Allaire_Berkeley_s_idealism.djvu
|doi=10.1111/j.1755-2567.1963.tb00025.x
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306000503/http://su-ltd.mylivepage.ru/file/2716/6138_Allaire_Berkeley_s_idealism.djvu
|archive-date=2012-03-06
|url-access=subscription
}}
<br /> The article is a classical work of Berkeley scholarship.</ref><ref>For more detail, see:
*{{cite journal |last=Hausman |first=A. |title=Adhering to inherence: A new look at the old steps in Berkeley's march to idealism |journal=[[Canadian Journal of Philosophy]] |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=421–443 |year=1984 |doi= 10.1080/00455091.1984.10716390|s2cid=170386920 }} (A wide grasp of literature on the "inherence account".)
*{{cite book |first=Robert G. |last=Muehlmann |chapter=Introduction |title=Berkeley's Metaphysics: Structural, Interpretive, and Critical Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrvNFjIrDMUC |year=2010 |orig-year=1995 |publisher=Pennsylvania State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04228-2}} (Muehlmann's Introduction provides further bibliographical information of the various articles in defense and in criticism of this view.)
*{{cite book |first=Katia |last=Saporiti |chapter=Ch. IV §2 Die Inhärenzhypothese |title=Die Wirklichkeit der Dinge: eine Untersuchung des Begriffs der Idee in der Philosophie George Berkeleys |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kS1Ux2jxMIMC&pg=PP1 |year=2006 |publisher=Vittorio Klostermann |isbn=978-3-465-03510-7 }}
</ref><ref>For up-to-date criticism of the "inherence account," see: {{cite journal
|last1=Bettcher
|first1=Talia Mae (Ph. D., [[California State University, Los Angeles]])
|date=November 2008
|title=Berkeley's Dualistic Ontology
|journal=[[Análisis Filosófico]]
|volume=28
|issue=2
|pages=147–174
|url=http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/BerkeleyDualism.pdf
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319211851/http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/BerkeleyDualism.pdf
|archive-date=2012-03-19
|url-status=dead
}}
</ref>

<blockquote>That account is put forward to answer an extremely perplexing question in the history of philosophy: Why did Berkeley embrace idealism, i. e., why did he hold that esse est percipi, that to be is to be perceived? {{harv|Hausman|1984|pp=421–2}}</blockquote>

After emerging in the early 1960s, the "inherence account" attracted numerous proponents and became an influential element of contemporary Berkeley scholarship. In his paper "Ideas, minds, and Berkeley"<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pappas |first=G.S. |title=Ideas, minds, and Berkeley |journal=[[American Philosophical Quarterly|Am. Phil. Q.]] |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=181–194 |year=1980 |url=http://su-ltd.mylivepage.ru/file/2716/6145_Pappas_Ideas%2C_Minds%2C_and_Berkeley.djvu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306000509/http://su-ltd.mylivepage.ru/file/2716/6145_Pappas_Ideas,_Minds,_and_Berkeley.djvu |archive-date=2012-03-06 }}</ref> Pappas revealed some discrepancies between fountain-head evidences and Allaire's approach to a reconstruction of Berkeley's idealism. Pappas' critical examination of the "inherence account" is greatly appreciated by Berkeley scholars. Pappas' penetrating remarks compelled Edwin B. Allaire to revise and improve his conception.<ref>{{cite book |last=Allaire |first=Edwin B. |chapter=Berkeley's Idealism Revisited |editor-first=Colin M. |editor-last=Turbayne |title=Berkeley: Critical and Interpretive Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RExF10reT9wC |year=1982 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-1066-2 |pages=197–206}}</ref> Even those who share Allaire's account of Berkeley's idealism acknowledge Pappas' article to be "an excellent review and critique of the IA [inherence account]."<ref>{{harvnb|Hausman|1984|p=422 (note 2)}}</ref>

In 2000, Pappas published his monograph ''Berkeley's thought'' in which some parts were based on earlier papers of his. While writings by [[A. A. Luce]] or [[Geoffrey Warnock]] are long outdated, ''Berkeley's thought'' is often included in lists of recommended literature on Berkeley's philosophy.<ref>As examples, take:
* {{cite book
| last = Bettcher
| first = Talia Mae
| title = Berkeley: A Guide for the Perplexed
| series = Guides for the Perplexed
| date = January 2008
| publisher = [[Continuum International Publishing Group|Continuum Publishing]]
| isbn = 978-0-8264-8991-3
| page = 208
}}
* {{cite journal
| last1 = Downing
| first1 = Lisa
| editor-last = Zalta
| editor-first = Edward N.
| date = Winter 2008
| title = George Berkeley
| journal = The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
| url = http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berkeley/
}}
* {{cite journal
| last1 = Flage
| first1 = Daniel E.
| title = George Berkeley (1685–1753)
| journal = The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
| url = http://www.iep.utm.edu/berkeley/
| year = 2005
}}
</ref>

== Publications ==
*{{cite book |first=George S. |last=Pappas |title=Berkeley's Thought |url=https://archive.org/details/berkeleysthought00papp |url-access=registration |year=2000 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=0-8014-3700-8 }}

==See also==
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pappas, George}}
[[Category:1942 births]]
[[Category:21st-century American philosophers]]
[[Category:American epistemologists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Ohio State University faculty]]
[[Category:George Berkeley scholars]]

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George Pappas