1710 – 1796

Thomas Reid

Worth knowing

A Church of Scotland minister who became a professor at Aberdeen and then at Glasgow, where he succeeded Adam Smith in 1764.
His Inquiry into the Human Mind (1764) answered David Hume's scepticism. Some beliefs, such as trust in our senses, our memory and other people's testimony, are the ground reasoning stands on and are not conclusions it has to reach first.
His common-sense philosophy was taught for generations at Princeton and other American colleges.

In Scholar’s Dream, Thomas Reid has one book

An Inquiry into the Human MindThomas Reid, on the Principles of Common Sense (1764)Presupposition

Thomas Reid’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Thomas Reid that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“It declines the tribunal of reason, and laughs at all the artillery of the logician. It retains its sovereign authority in spite of all the edicts of philosophy, and reason itself must stoop to its orders.”
Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Reason Itself Must Stoop

PresuppositionArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameBelief in a world outside one’s own mind is a first principle that Hume’s method cannot prove and cannot do without. A skeptic has to stand on that ground in order to doubt it.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 40)

“I found, that if I had not believed what they told me, before I could give a reason of my belief, I had to this day been little better than a changeling.”
Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Little Better Than A Changeling

PresuppositionArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot a proof that testimony is reliable — a plain admission that nobody, Hume included, ever waited for one before trusting it. A child who withheld belief until it had a reason would never have learned enough to reason at all.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 44)

Strong against

×3A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Follow Hume’s skepticism to the root and it has to doubt the very faculties — memory, the senses, testimony itself — that it is using to doubt with. Reid names the branch it is sawing off.

×3An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Follow Hume’s skepticism to the root and it has to doubt the very faculties — memory, the senses, testimony itself — that it is using to doubt with. Reid names the branch it is sawing off.

“Thus, the wisdom of philosophy is set in opposition to the common sense of mankind. The first pretends to demonstrate a priori, that there can be no such thing as a material world; that sun, moon, stars, and earth, vegetable and animal bodies, are, and can be nothing else, but sensations in the mind.”
Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Ch. I § 3, public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Wisdom of Philosophy

PresuppositionArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameReid states the conclusion the reasoning of his century had reached, in its own words, without softening it — and lets the reader notice that a proof ending here has told you more about the proof than about the world.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 50)

Strong against

×2.5Christianity Not Mysteriousan argument · why?

Toland makes reason the measure of what may be believed. Reid prints what the reasoning of his own century had measured its way to — no sun, no moon, no bodies, nothing but sensations in a mind — and asks whether a proof that ends there has told you about the world or about the proof.

“Such original and natural judgments are therefore a part of that furniture which nature hath given to the human understanding. They are the inspiration of the Almighty, no less than our notions or simple apprehensions. They serve to direct us in the common affairs of life, where our reasoning faculty would leave us in the dark.”
Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Ch. VII, public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Furniture Nature Gave Us

PresuppositionArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe judgments a person cannot help making — that there is a world, that memory reports the past, that other people are people — are not conclusions anybody argued their way to. Reid says where they came from and declines to apologise for having them.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 56)

Strong against

×2.5The Ethics of Beliefan argument · why?

Clifford wants every belief resting on sufficient evidence. Reid names the beliefs nobody has evidence for and nobody can work without — that there is a world, that memory reports the past, that other people are people — and asks which evidence is supposed to come before those.

“Common Sense holds nothing of Philosophy, nor needs her aid. But, on the other hand, Philosophy… has no other root but the principles of Common Sense; it grows out of them and draws its nourishment from them.”
Thomas Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Ch. I § 4, public domain. (trimmed quote — a parenthesis on the metaphor is cut, and the sentence stops short of a word the scan garbles.)public domain

How it works in the game: the move No Other Root

PresuppositionArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameReid is not anti-philosophical and says so plainly. His claim is about which of the two is holding the other up, and it is not the one that thinks it is.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 62)

Strong against

×2.5Room for Beliefan argument · why?

Kant saves faith by walling it off from knowledge, which leaves reason sovereign inside its own wall. Reid is not anti-philosophical and says so; his claim is about which of the two is holding the other up, and it is not the one that thinks it is.

×2.5The Critique of Pure Reasona book · why?

Words Thomas Reid’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byAn Inquiry into the Human Mind (Lv 32)

Who else was alive

Thomas Reid against everyone else in the game.

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Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window