Summary |
Thomas Reid (1710-1796) was a Scottish philosopher and key figure
in the Scottish Common Sense School. He taught at Kings College Aberdeen before
succeeding Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of
Glasgow in 1764. Reid is primarily known for the epistemological theory he
develops in response to the perceived failings of the 'way of ideas', the
position associated with the likes of Descartes, Locke, Berkeley and Hume that
claims that the immediate objects of perception are private mental items. Reid
takes Hume as demonstrating that such a perceptual theory leads to a complete
scepticism. As an alternative to this, Reid offers a direct realist
account of perception and argues that all first principles of common sense
stand on an equal footing – there is no reason to favour perception or reason
over testimony or the belief in an external world, for example. One other aspect of Reid's Common Sense theory that
continues to exert significant influence is his contra-casual account of human
agency. |