Thinker · TH-0408
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid was a Scottish philosopher and minister who taught at King's College, Aberdeen, and later at the University of Glasgow. The founder of…
1710 – 1796 · Strachan, Aberdeen, Glasgow (Scotland)
Traditions: Modern European
Thomas Reid was a Scottish philosopher and minister who taught at King's College, Aberdeen, and later at the University of Glasgow. The founder of the Scottish philosophy of common sense, he rejected the theory of ideas he found in Locke, Berkeley and Hume, holding that perception puts us in contact with external things. He defended principles of common sense, including trust in memory and testimony, and his brave officer example pressed a transitivity objection against Locke's memory-based account of personal identity.
Key ideas
- Perception is direct: we perceive things, not ideas that stand between us and them.
- Common-sense principles, such as trust in memory and testimony, are rightly taken as starting points.
- Humans are naturally disposed to speak truly and to believe what others tell them.
- The brave officer case shows that a memory criterion of identity violates transitivity.
Major works
- An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764)
- Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785)
- Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788)
In the conversation
- Question I have forgotten most of my childhood. On Locke’s view, am I still that child?
- Question My new cooks believe everything I tell them about safe temperatures. Do they actually know it?
- Question When I look at a plate, am I seeing the plate or a picture my brain makes of it?
- Reading group Reading group: Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, one dialogue at a time
- Debate Moore’s “here is one hand” is not really an argument, and that is exactly why it works
- Debate The incredulous stare is a perfectly respectable argument against modal realism
- Question Reid said we are built to believe what we are told. Was he right, or was Hume?
- Discussion Yorùbá separates what you have seen from what you were told. What does that do to testimony?
In the Journal
- Journal Seen with one’s own eyes: what Yoruba usage teaches about knowing and believing
- Journal Innocent until proven false: Kumārila on why a cognition needs no certificate
In the Coordinates
The questions of philosophy where Thomas Reid takes a place, from The Coordinates of Thought.
- 1.3.2 Personal Identity Are you the same person you were at five?
- 2.2.1 Perception When you see a tree, what are you actually seeing?
- 2.2.3 Memory Is remembering a kind of perceiving, or a kind of imagining?
- 2.2.4 Testimony Do you need a reason to trust, or a reason not to?
- 2.7 Social Epistemology Much of what you know depends on other people. What follows?