Thomas Reid and ‘The Way of Ideas’: (45 Philosophical Studies Series)

This book is meant to serve as an introduction to the philosophy of Thomas Reid by way of a study of certain themes central to that philosophy as we find it expounded in his extensive and influential published writings. The choice of these themes inevitably reflects philosophical interests of the author of this book to some extent but a main consideration behind their selection is that they are extensively treated by Reid in response to treatments by certain of his predecessors in an identifiable tradition called by Yolton 'The Way ofIdeas'. My interest in Reid's philosophy was first awakened by the brilliant writings of A.N. Prior, and in particular by Part II of his posthumous 'Objects of Thought' called 'What we think about' together with his suggestion that Reid was a precursor of Mill on the signification of proper names. It is my hope that the standard of exegesis and of discussion throughout the book, and especially in the case of these topics, is a not unworthy tribute to that thinker.

Table of Contents:
I: Investigating our Mental Powers.- 1.1 Hume: Thinking versus feeling.- 1.2 Reid: Conception versus sensation.- 1.3 Laws of our constitution and epistemologically prior principles.- 1.4 How to arrive at laws of nature.- 1.5 Scientific study of the mind?.- II: The Ideal Hypothesis.- 2.1 Ideas as objects of perception.- 2.2 Perception and impressions on the mind.- 2.3 Perception by way of perceiving images.- 2.4 Is the table we see an image?.- 2.5 The role of sensation in perception.- III: The Epistemological Role of Perception.- 3.1 Is there fallacy of the senses?.- 3.2 The appearance of objects to the eye.- 3.3 Reliance on the senses.- IV: The Constituents of Reality.- 4.1 The testimony of the senses and the world of material bodies.- 4.2 Primary versus secondary qualities.- 4.3 Colour versus shape.- 4.4 Are there other minds than mine?.- 4.5 An intelligent Author of Nature?.- V: What Words Signify.- 5.1 Locke’s theory of signification.- 5.2 What proper names and general words signify according to Reid.- 5.3 Individual and general conceptions.- 5.4 Whether proper names signify attributes.- 5.5 The variety of objects of conception.- 5.6 Conceiving the real and the unreal.- 5.7 Attributions to conceivable individuals.- 5.8 Things objectively in my mind.- VI: Active Power.- 6.1 Knowingly giving rise to new actions.- 6.2 Locke on active power.- 6.3 Reid’s account of active power.- 6.4 Difficulties within Reid’s account.- 6.5 Divine prescience and active power.- 6.6 Is every future event already determined?.- 6.7 Moral attributions and active power.- VII; Causality.- 7.1 Concerning some criticisms of Hume’s view of the causal principle.- 7.2 No proof of the causal principle available within Hume’s philosophy.- 7.3 Past instances and the uniformity of nature.- 7.4Presupposition and the authority of experience.- 7.5 Reid’s notion of cause.- 7.6 Wisdom, prudence and causal law.- VIII: Identity and Continuity.- 8.1 The sameness of a person.- 8.2 Amnesia and the same person.- 8.3 The Brave Officer paradox.- 8.4 The sameness of plants and artefacts.- 8.5 What is found on entry into the self.- 8.6 Consciousness and awareness of self.- 8.7 Memories and personal identity.- IX: Of Common Sense and First Principles.- 9.1 How to detect first principles.- 9.2 First principles and modes of argument.- 9.3 Our faculties are not fallacious.- 9.4 The first principles to be employed in the investigation of the mind.- 9.5 Accounting for beliefs.- 9.6 First principles and judgments.- 9.7 Providential Naturalism.- Notes.