Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous was written by the scholarly Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop George Berkeley and published in 1713. Upon becoming acquainted with works by René Descartes, John Locke, and other philosophers, Berkeley was immediately impressed, but also deeply repelled by many of their ideas, which he felt put forth a lurking threat of skepticism and atheism—two forces that his lifes work combated. In his Three Dialogues, Berkeley advocates for his approach of idealism to counter these threats.

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