This collection of essays on themes in the work of John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume is intended to provide a deepened understanding of major issues raised in the Empiricist tradition. It introduces students to important metaphysical and epistemological issues including the theory of ideas, personal identity and skepticism, through the best of contemporary scholarship.

In treating of Locke, Berkeley and Hume we are dealing with what has been commonly regarded as the greatest age of British philosophy.

The rise and fall of British Empiricism is philosophy's most dramatic example of pushing premises to their logical--and fatal--conclusions. Born in 1690 with the appearance of Locke's Essay, Empiricism flourished as the reigning school until 1739 when Hume's Treatise strangled it with its own cinctures after a period of Berkeley's optimistic idealism. The Empiricists collects the key writings on this important philosophy, perfect for those interested in learning about this movement with just one book.