Philonous
E470473
Philonous is the philosophical interlocutor in George Berkeley’s "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," articulating and defending Berkeley’s idealist views against materialism.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Philonous canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4795595 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Philonous Context triple: [Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, character, Philonous]
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A.
Philo
Philo is a skeptical, philosophically inclined character in David Hume’s "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion," often seen as representing Hume’s own critical views on religion and metaphysics.
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B.
Philo
Philo is a small rural community in California’s Anderson Valley known for its wineries, apple orchards, and role as a hub for the region’s wine tourism.
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C.
Philo
Philo is a U.S.-based live and on-demand TV streaming service that focuses on affordable access to entertainment, lifestyle, and knowledge channels over the internet.
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D.
Filotas
Filotas is a village in northern Greece located close to Lake Vegoritida, known for its agricultural surroundings and scenic natural setting.
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E.
Philo of Larissa
Philo of Larissa was a Hellenistic philosopher and prominent Academic Skeptic who led Plato’s Academy in its later period and influenced Roman intellectuals such as Cicero.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Philonous Target entity description: Philonous is the philosophical interlocutor in George Berkeley’s "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," articulating and defending Berkeley’s idealist views against materialism.
-
A.
Philo
Philo is a skeptical, philosophically inclined character in David Hume’s "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion," often seen as representing Hume’s own critical views on religion and metaphysics.
-
B.
Philo
Philo is a small rural community in California’s Anderson Valley known for its wineries, apple orchards, and role as a hub for the region’s wine tourism.
-
C.
Philo
Philo is a U.S.-based live and on-demand TV streaming service that focuses on affordable access to entertainment, lifestyle, and knowledge channels over the internet.
-
D.
Filotas
Filotas is a village in northern Greece located close to Lake Vegoritida, known for its agricultural surroundings and scenic natural setting.
-
E.
Philo of Larissa
Philo of Larissa was a Hellenistic philosopher and prominent Academic Skeptic who led Plato’s Academy in its later period and influenced Roman intellectuals such as Cicero.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Dialogue character
ⓘ
Fictional character ⓘ Literary character ⓘ Philosophical interlocutor ⓘ |
| advocatesView |
Immaterialism
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Subjective idealism ⓘ The doctrine that existence is to be perceived (esse est percipi) ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst | Lockean representationalism about perception ⓘ |
| arguesFor |
Immediate perception of ideas rather than external matter
ⓘ
Incoherence of the notion of material substance ⓘ |
| associatedWithPhilosopher | George Berkeley NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | Hylas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| createdBy | George Berkeley NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| debatesTopic |
Existence of external objects
ⓘ
Nature of perception ⓘ Role of God in sustaining the world ⓘ Status of sensible qualities ⓘ |
| dialogueForm | Socratic-style questioning ⓘ |
| engagesWithCharacter | Hylas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genreOfWork | Early modern philosophy ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Early 18th-century British empiricism ⓘ |
| influencesReceptionOf | Berkeley’s immaterialist philosophy ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | English ⓘ |
| literaryFunction |
Didactic expositor of Berkeley’s philosophy
ⓘ
Rational critic of common-sense materialist assumptions ⓘ |
| medium | Philosophical dialogue ⓘ |
| nameEtymology | Derived from Greek meaning "lover of mind" or "lover of intellect" ⓘ |
| opposesView |
Materialism
ⓘ
Philosophical skepticism about the external world ⓘ |
| philosophicalMethod |
Appeal to common sense reinterpreted immaterially
ⓘ
Argument by reductio of materialist assumptions ⓘ |
| philosophicalPosition |
Denial of mind-independent material substance
ⓘ
God as the ultimate perceiver ⓘ Perceived objects are collections of ideas ⓘ Reality consists of minds and their ideas ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
Empiricism
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Idealism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| roleInWork |
Defender of immaterialism
ⓘ
Main interlocutor ⓘ Spokesperson for Berkeley’s views ⓘ |
| symbolizes | The immaterialist standpoint ⓘ |
| textualForm | Character speaking in first person ⓘ |
| usedAs | Vehicle for presenting arguments for immaterialism ⓘ |
| workPublicationYear | 1713 (Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Philonous Description of subject: Philonous is the philosophical interlocutor in George Berkeley’s "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," articulating and defending Berkeley’s idealist views against materialism.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.