Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T21:55:00.704Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thomas Reid on truth, evidence and first principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Keith Lehrer
Keith Lehrer*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona, University of Miami
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reid had a theory of the human mind containing a theory of truth, both of our evidence of truth and the conditions of truth, fully consistent with empiricism. The justification and evidence of first principles is something felt in consciousness rather than some external relation. This is the result of our faculties, original and natural powers of our constitution. Original convictions and conceptions arise from our faculties in response to experience as a result of our natural development. Reid combines elements of foundationalism, coherentism, falliblism and nominalism. I distinguish and compare Reid to Hume, Moore, Quine, James and Wittgenstein.

Keywords

truthevidencefacultiesfirst principlesThomas Reid
Type
Epistemology
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 41 , Issue S1: New Essays on Reid , July 2011 , pp. 156 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Castagnetto, S. V. 1992. “Reid's Answer to Abstract Ideas.” Journal of Philosophical Research xvii.Google Scholar
De Bary, Philip 2002. Thomas Reid and Scepticism: His Reliabilist Response. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. 1986. Epistemology and Cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Greco, John 2002. “How to Reid Moore.” The Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209): 544–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, D. 1739. A Treatise of Human Nature. London: John Noon.Google Scholar
James, William 1909. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. LLC: Wildside Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, J. 1979. “Reid and Wittgenstein on Philosophy and Language.” Philosophical Studies 36 (4): 359–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrer, K. 1998. “Reid, Hume and Common Sense.” Reid Studies 2 (1): 15–26.Google Scholar
Lehrer, K. 1989, 1991pb. Thomas Reid. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lehrer, K. 2013. “Thomas Reid on Common Sense and Morals.” The Journal of Scottish Philosophy 11 (2): 109–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, G. E. 1925. “A Defence of Common Sense.” In Contemporary British Philosophy (2nd series), edited by Muirhead, J. H. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. 1969. “Epistemology Naturalized.” In Ontology Relativity and other essays. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, T. 1863. The Philosophical Works of Thomas Reid, D.D. edited by Sir W., Hamilton 6thedition, Edinburgh: James Thin, *This is the source for all page references to Reid in the text.Google Scholar
Rysiew, P. 2002. “Reid and Epistemic Naturalism.” The Philosophical Quarterly 52 (209): 437–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rysiew, P. 2005. “Reidian Evidence.” The Journal of Scottish Philosophy 3 (2): 107–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. 1969–1975. On Certainty (Uber Gewissheit), edited by Anscombe, G. E. M. and Wright, G. H. von translated by Denis Paul. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, N. 2001. Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar