Thomas Reid (1710–1796) was a Scottish philosopher best known for his philosophical method, his theory of perception and its wide-ranging impact on epistemology, and as a developer and defender of an agent-causal theory of free will.
In his works, the philosophy author offered insightful critiques of the philosophy of Locke, Berkeley, and especially Hume. He is especially well-known for his criticisms of Locke’s view of personal identity and Hume’s view of causation. Reed also made influential contributions to philosophical topics such as ethics, aesthetics, and philosophy of mind.
Thomas Reid’s legacy is found in contemporary theories of perception, free will, philosophy of religion, and in many aspects of epistemology. After studying at the University of Aberdeen, Reid joined the ministry in New Machar in 1737. Almost a decade later, an essay by Reid was published entitled “An Essay on Quantity.” The essay discusses the origins of our ideas of beauty and virtue. Although this was his only published work, Thomas Reid was given a professorship at King’s College Aberdeen in 1752.
He published his most popular work ‘An Inquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense’ in 1764. The inquiry was a methodologically groundbreaking work due to the extensive and rigorous use of observational evidence to substantiate claims about perception, Reid explores each of the five senses and discusses the ways in which we learn about the world, using them.
The idea of ‘Intellectual Powers’ expands his system of understanding beyond the ability to perceive the world through the senses to consideration of memory, imagination, knowledge, the nature of judgment, reasoning, and taste. While the ‘Active Powers’ discusses a variety of topics concerning ethics, the nature of agency, and the unique features of human agency.
Later, he was given a prestigious professorship at the University of Glasgow. He resigned from his position in 1781 in order to have more time to write, and published Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man in 1785 and Essays on the Active Powers of Man in 1788.
These three books, along with four new additions to the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid, have recently been published.
