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# Thomas Reid

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Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Scottish philosopher, was the founder of the so-called [Scottish School of Common Sense]?. He believed that common sense--this term is used in a special philosophical sense--is or should be at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He advocated direct realism, or [common sense realism]?, and inveighed strongly against the so-called [Theory of Ideas]? advocated by [John Locke]?, Descartes, and (in varying forms) nearly all [Early Modern philosophers]? who came after them. He wrote a number of important philosophical works, including Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, the Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, and the Essays on the Active Powers of Man. He played an integral role in the [Scottish Enlightenment]?. In his day and for some years into the 19th century, he was regarded as more important than David Hume. His reputation waned after attacks on the [Scottish School of Common Sense]? by Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill. His reputation has arisen again in the wake of the advocacy of common sense as a philosophical method or criterion by G. E. Moore, particularly due to attention given Reid by the likes of William Alston and [Alvin Plantinga]?.

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Last edited April 20, 2001 2:15 pm (diff)
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