Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid FRSEwas a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, a contemporary of David Hume as well as "Hume's earliest and fiercest critic." He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. The early part of his life was spent in Aberdeen and he graduated from the University of Aberdeen. He began his career as a Minister of the Church of Scotland but ceased to be a Ministerwhen he was given...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 April 1818
active beings distinct follows understanding
It follows also, that the active power, of which only we can have any distinct conception, can be only in beings that have understanding and will.
mosaic original
This is the original mosaic tile and marble.
existence mind object past remote sun
The idea is in the mind itself, and can have no existence but in a mind that thinks; but the remote or mediate object may be something external, as the sun or moon; it may be something past or future; it may be something which never existed.
cause efficient power produce proper strict
In the strict and proper sense, I take an efficient cause to be a being who had power to produce the effect, and exerted that power for that purpose.
knows people safety
He knows a lot of people in these different facilities, ... Sometimes there are safety issues.
began beginning brought capable child distinct faculties forth full grows hath history human infant life light mind natural obtain ourselves passed sensation systems till various
If we could obtain a distinct and full history of all that hath passed in the mind of a child from the beginning of life and sensation till it grows up to the use of reason, how its infant faculties began to work, and how they brought forth and ripened all the various notions, opin-ions, and sentiments, which we find in ourselves when we come to be capable of reflection, this would be a trea-sure of natural history which would probably give more light into the human faculties, than all the systems of philosophers about them from the beginning of the world.
advancement ambiguity greater
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.
house ships navigation
The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
links may lasts
In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.
psychology agents belief
It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.
leadership independent fields
It is the invaluable merit of the great Basle mathematician Leonard Euler, to have freed the analytical calculus from all geometric bounds, and thus to have established analysis as an independent science, which from his time on has maintained an unchallenged leadership in the field of mathematics.
pushing looks homeless
I sit in my loft with the haves and look out at the have-nots - the bottom of the bottom - and I have to rationalize it, ... Am I pushing out the homeless?
common fastidious granted setting structure surely takes treating
But when, in the first setting out, he takes it for granted without proof, that distinctions found in the structure of all languages, have no foundation in nature; this surely is too fastidious a way of treating the common sense of mankind.