Excerpt from Philosophie Ecossaise Nous commencerons par l'histoire de la philosophie ecossaise. La chronologie et la logique le veulent egalement. Les philosophes ecossais ont precede d'un demi-siecle environ ceux de l'allemagne. Hutcheson et Smith avaient enseigne avec eclat, et Reid avait publie son premier ouvrage avant qu'aucun signe annoncat l'approche de la revolution philosophique dont Kant est l'auteur. Enfin la premiere loi de toute etude reguliere est de commencer par le plus facile, et d'aller du plus connu au moins connu (...) or, il est indubitable que le spiritualisme de l'ecosse est plus ala portee des intelligences francaises quel'idealisme de l'allemagne. Plus d'un lien, entre autres le grand lien des memes institutions politiques, nous rapproche de nos voisins d'outre-mer. Leur langue et toute leur litterature nous est bien plus familiere. Nous n'avons donc pas a craindre, en passant de l'etude des philosophes francais du dix-huitieme siecle a l'etude des philosophes ecossais de changer brusquement d'horizon et une route presque insensible nous con duira peu a peu dans des regions differentes de celles que nous venons de parcourir. Pour bien comprendre et apprecier une ecole philosophique il est necessaire de Ietudier dans le temps ou elle est nee et au milieu des circonstances qui lui ont donne naissance et qui ont favorise son developpement. Quand on recherche d'ou peuvent etre venus ala philosophie ecossaise le spiritualisme eclaire, le bon sens et la forte moralite qui la distinguent, on en reconnait deux causes diversement puissantes. D'abord il se formait de plusieurs cotes une assez vive reaction contre le systeme de Locke ou du moins contre les consequences qu'en avaient promptement tirees les disciples intemperants du sage auteur de l'essai sur l'entendre ment humain. Et puis il etait naturel que les interpretes de cette revolte du sens commun et dela moralite publique parussent plus particulierement dans un pays justement celebre par son bon sens et'par son esprit moral et religieux. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Thomas Reid was a persistent and acute critic of the philosophy of David Hume. It is Reid’s contention that Hume’s theory cannot account for the facts of human conception and belief. Hume’s theory is deficient in that impressions and ideas are inadequate to account for the intentionality of human thought, the fact that human thoughts have objects, ones that may not exist. Impressions and ideas are also inadequate to account for the facts of belief, especially the fact of negative belief. (...) Reid recognizes the genius of the attempt to account for human conception and belief in terms of impressions and ideas. He calls Hume the most acute metaphysician of the age and remarked, in correspondence, that if Mr. Hume were to stop writing, he and his cohorts in Aberdeen would have nothing to discuss. Reid remarks as well, however, that it is genius and not the lack of it that leads to false philosophy. Reid is not a mere modus tollens critic of Hume. Unlike G. E. Moore, Reid does not rest content with arguing that Hume’s theory cannot account for the facts but contends that we need not despair of a better. Reid’s philosophy is an attempt to offer a better theory. I shall describe Reid’s destructive and constructive efforts to refute the philosophy of Hume. (shrink)

Thomas Reid was a persistent and acute critic of the philosophy of David Hume. It is Reid’s contention that Hume’s theory cannot account for the facts of human conception and belief. Hume’s theory is deficient in that impressions and ideas are inadequate to account for the intentionality of human thought, the fact that human thoughts have objects, ones that may not exist. Impressions and ideas are also inadequate to account for the facts of belief, especially the fact of negative belief. (...) Reid recognizes the genius of the attempt to account for human conception and belief in terms of impressions and ideas. He calls Hume the most acute metaphysician of the age and remarked, in correspondence, that if Mr. Hume were to stop writing, he and his cohorts in Aberdeen would have nothing to discuss. Reid remarks as well, however, that it is genius and not the lack of it that leads to false philosophy. Reid is not a mere modus tollens critic of Hume. Unlike G. E. Moore, Reid does not rest content with arguing that Hume’s theory cannot account for the facts but contends that we need not despair of a better. Reid’s philosophy is an attempt to offer a better theory. I shall describe Reid’s destructive and constructive efforts to refute the philosophy of Hume. (shrink)

Following a detailed study of the views of reid and wittgenstein on philosophy and language, I conclude that reid's position represents an extremely pivotal stage in the upgrading of the importance of language in philosophy which, Taken up and carried along by moore, Culminates in the later philosophy of wittgenstein and that the latter owes much to views on philosophy and language which have their origin in reid.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Thomas Reid in the eighteenth century and Ludwig Wittgenstein in the twentieth made strong cases for the existence of "communication systems" that must be in place if there is to be the acquisition of any language; language in the full sense of a system of words, displaying distinctions into word classes and ordered by a grammar that is sensitive to those word classes. Although their pre-languages have something of the character of language proper, Reid and Wittgenstein offer a very different (...) conception of the necessary conditions for the existence of language from that proposed by Chomsky, much criticized for its implausible cognitivism. In this paper we compare and contrast Reidian and Wittgensteinian conceptions of what there must be for language to be possible, and draw some morals for the vexed, but in our view, empty question of the demarcation of language from all other intentional and normative systems in use amongst people and animals. (shrink)