Thomas Reid

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.