Reid, Inquiry & Essays
Author: Thomas ReidReid
Thomas Reid
[[Reid, Inquiry & Essays]]
Bkgrd info (copied fr. Kate)
important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment (18th century)
Presbyterian Minister
age 16, MA from University of Aberdeen
age 21, licensed preacher for Church of Scotland
age 27, entered Ministry
age 54, wrote Inquiry into the Human Mind
he was called to the University of Glasgow to replace Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy
Common sense = “The most important use of the term “common sense” in R...
![[Reid#Philosophy]]
- what does he think of previous philosophers?
- they didn't use common sense
- they gave us the ideas/words to use to talk about philosophy
- they asked questions that didn't need to be answered
- giving answers we already know but with explanations that don't make sense
Book Notes
- sensation may be presented to the mind in 3 ways
- it may be sensed (implies present existence)
- it may be remembered (implies past existence)
- it may be thought of/imagined (does not imply existence; otherwise called Simple Apprehension)
- thinks that remembered sensations are immediate objects of his imagination, and not the idea of the sensation
- first principles don't fall to ReasonReason
Reason
reason is the "natural light" DescartesDescartes
Rene Descartes
Background Info
1596-1650
educated at Univ of Paris
Catholic Christian
not an academic
wrote [[Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy]] from a [[Rationalism
rationalistic]] perspective
claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
...
what is the difference b/t reason & thinking?
what is thinking?
processing information?
in this case, can an animal think?
what is reason?
a type of thinking?
can you only accept what has been proven by reason?
reason is like a telescope: it lets us see things clearer; but it must have ..., but to common sense - principles of common sense: "certain principles…which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them." (pg 20)
- the idea that we have a being separate from our thoughts is assumed by everyone; and cannot be proven by reasoning or experience, so does not need to be proven.
- qualities & substances exist outside of experience
- suggestion: what is it?
- Senses
- smell is a sensation that is not dependent on a mind
- smelling is an act of the mind, and not a quality of it
- smell is a quality of a rose
- but smelling is an action of a body
- "ability to smell" is a quality of a mind (/body?)
- there really is something in the flower that causes me to smell it; it's not just in my mind
- mind searches for a "cause" (not in the strict sense, but just something that continually coincides with the phenomenon; i.e. searching for the flower that causes a scent)
- experience is what makes these connections
- sometimes signifies a sensation (dependent on a mind), but generally signifies a quality which is independent of the mind
- smelling is an act of the mind, and not a quality of it
- hearing
- noblest use of hearing is LanguageLanguage
Language
[[Reid]]'s Opinion on Language
"By language I understand all those signs which mankind use in order to communicate to others their thougths and intentions, their purposes and desires." ([[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]], pg 32)
Types of language
1) signs w/ no meaning except that assigned through a previous agreement (artificial)
2) signs that are understood by all men through the principles of nature, w/o previous agreement (natural) (ex: modulations of the voi...
- noblest use of hearing is LanguageLanguage
- touch - complex, has many sensations; connections b/t these sensations and the ideas they form cannot be gotten through experience or reason
- "heat & cold" -> like smell, can signify a sensation or a quality
- "hardness & softness" -> quality that signifies the cohesion of a body's parts
- "natural signs" -> 3 types
- 1) established by nature, but discovered by experience
- 2) established by nature, and discoverd to us by a natural principle
- 3) never conceived by us before, but the natural signs instantly conjures it up to us (??)
- extension, figure, & motion cannot be ideas of sensations (so what are they, HumeHume
David Hume
Wrote [[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]
Wrote a History of England
Bkgrd Info
1711-1776
Scottish
studied law at 15, did not like it
self-taught in philosophy
published "Treatise of Human Understanding" at age 28
thought it would make him a rock star like Newton.
received little attention
ReidReid
Thomas Reid
[[Reid, Inquiry & Essays]]
Bkgrd info (copied fr. Kate)
important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment (18th century)
Presbyterian Minister
age 16, MA from University of Aberdeen
age 21, licensed preacher for Church of Scotland
age 27, entered Ministry
age 54, wrote Inquiry into the Human Mind
he was called to the University of Glasgow to replace Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy
Common sense = “The most important use of the term “common sense” in R... & KantKant
Kant
Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
Background
came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
... were the only philosophers who took him seriously
His Philosophy
What was in the air
the rationalism and dedu...?)
- smell is a sensation that is not dependent on a mind
- ReasonReason
Reason
reason is the "natural light" DescartesDescartes
Rene Descartes
Background Info
1596-1650
educated at Univ of Paris
Catholic Christian
not an academic
wrote [[Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy]] from a [[Rationalism
rationalistic]] perspective
claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
...
what is the difference b/t reason & thinking?
what is thinking?
processing information?
in this case, can an animal think?
what is reason?
a type of thinking?
can you only accept what has been proven by reason?
reason is like a telescope: it lets us see things clearer; but it must have ... can't prove the existence of impressions and ideas, any more than it can prove that of minds and bodies- even DescartesDescartes
Rene Descartes
Background Info
1596-1650
educated at Univ of Paris
Catholic Christian
not an academic
wrote [[Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy]] from a [[Rationalism
rationalistic]] perspective
claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
... took it for granted that he thought
- even DescartesDescartes
Summary
Reid talks about sensation, and the different ways that it can be presented to the mind: through the senses; through the memory, and through the thoughts or imagination. He emphasizes the necessity of common sense, and how the first principles are not discoverable through reason, but only through this common sense. Also, there is a principle alled suggestion that enables sensations to connect ideas. For instance, when I smell something, there is a quality outside of me and not dependent on me that causes the scent. The quality suggests to me the concept that I then store in my memory. Reid then talks about hearing, and about the noblest purpose of hearing, namely language and communication. Finally, Reid discusses the different sensations of touch, and the ideas of extension, figure, and motion. He continually reemphasized that reason cannot prove the existence of anything.