Thomas Reid and Scepticism

Thomas Reid (1710-96) was one of the most original thinkers of the eighteenth century. He saw that philosophy had been led by his great contemporary, David Hume, into a "coal-pit" of scepticism. Reid undertook to destroy this sceptical orthodoxy and to replace it with a 'Philosophy of Common Sense'. Although his writings had considerable influence on nineteenth-century American Realist philosophy, and on such twentieth-century figures as Moore and Wittgenstein, his reputation until recently was in eclipse. It was widely thought that Reid's 'Scottish School' had merely met Hume's scepticism with dogmatic assertion. This book bears witness to the current reawakening of interest in Reid's philosophy. It first examines Reid's negative attack on the Way of Ideas, and finds him to be a devastating critic of his predecessors. Turing to the positive part of Reid's programme, the author then develops a fresh interpretation of Reid as an anticipator of present-day 'reliabilism'. Throughout the book, Reid is presented as a powerful thinker with much to say to philosophers in the twenty-first century. The book will be of interest not only to Reid scholars and historians of philosophy, but also to specialists and students in contemporary epistemology.