George Berkeley, Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (1732)
George Berkeley — Irish philosopher and bishop, who wrote it in Rhode Island while waiting for money for a college in Bermuda that never came
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
STAMINA — Middling. Seven dialogues over seven days.
CONTEND — High. Berkeley lets the freethinkers speak first and at length, then answers each one.
DEFEND — Middling. Some of its arguments rest on his own unusual philosophy of perception.
POPULARITY — Middling. It went through three editions in two years.
George Berkeley wrote Alciphron in 1732 as seven dialogues between two freethinkers and two Christians. He called the freethinkers minute philosophers because they made everything smaller. He argued that the world we see is God speaking to us.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 18 | Affirm | — | Status | — | — | 1 |
| 30 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 40 | Minute Philosophers | Rationality | Argument | 82 | 100% | 12 |
| 44 | God Speaks to Your Eyes | Natural Theology | Argument | 88 | 100% | 10 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.
“they being a sort of sect which diminish all the most valuable things, the thoughts, views, and hopes of men; all the knowledge, notions, and theories of the mind they reduce to sense”
George Berkeley, Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (1732), First Dialogue, ed. A. C. Fraser (Oxford, 1901), public domain.public domain
In the gameBerkeley’s name for the freethinkers, borrowed from Cicero. They call themselves great minds, and everything they touch comes out smaller.
“you have as much reason to think the Universal Agent or God speaks to your eyes, as you can have for thinking any particular person speaks to your ears”
George Berkeley, Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (1732), Fourth Dialogue, ed. A. C. Fraser (Oxford, 1901), public domain.public domain
In the gameBerkeley’s answer to the absent clockmaker. What we see works like a language: signs that tell us what to expect and how to act. If a voice proves a speaker, so does this.
Berkeley answers the absent clockmaker directly: what we see works like a language, telling us what to expect and how to act. A God who speaks to your eyes every moment has not left the room.