Berkeley’s Querist : ‘Hints . . . What Is to Be Done in this Critical State of our Affairs’ or Proposals for a Hyperborean Eutopia? See George Berkeley, Plan or Sketch of National Bank, reprinted in Johnston, J. (1970), Berkeley’s Querist in Historical Perspective. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, p. 207, and The Querist, Query 269: ibid. p. 148.
Extract‘Hints . . . What Is to Be Done in this Critical State of our Affairs’ or Proposals for a Hyperborean Eutopia? Patrick Kelly The Querist, containing several Queries, Proposed to the Consideration of the Public was Berkeley’s major piece of economic writing. It first appeared anonymously in three annual parts, from 1735–37, and was subsequently issued in a single, much abbreviated volume, bearing Berkeley’s name in 1750. Its unusual format of a series of often randomly linked rhetorical questions makes it a work that is hard to view comprehensively, not least because of the wide variety of topics covered. Nonetheless, the book created a considerable stir on its first appearance, and ever since there have been those who have admired it for its theoretical insights, its concern for the plight of Ireland’s impoverished masses, and not least its literary skill. Far from being an isolated production, The Querist was...