Thomas Reid
We are the true authors of our acts: an agent can be the cause of what it does.
Life
Thomas Reid (1710-1796), born at Strachan in Scotland, taught philosophy at Aberdeen then Glasgow. Leader of the Scottish common-sense school, he answered Hume by holding that our basic beliefs (the external world, our power to act) are trustworthy without proof. On freedom, he argued that the agent is the real cause of his actions.
Main works
Answers Hume's scepticism by defending direct perception and common sense.
Studies perception, memory, judgment and the principles of common sense.
Defends moral liberty and bases morals on self-evident principles.
In his own words
« By the liberty of a moral agent, I understand, a power over the determinations of his own will. »
« It is no less a contradiction to say, that a cause has power to produce a certain effect, but that he cannot exert that power : for power which cannot be exerted is no power »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe argues from the design of the world to an intelligent and good Author of nature.
Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), VI
Against Hume's skepticism, the first principles of common sense (the senses, memory, other minds) deserve trust.
Reid, An Inquiry into the Human Mind (1764)
The mind is a single, indivisible, active substance, distinct from the body.
Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), III
An agent has real power to cause his own actions; he is the author of them, not a link in a chain of causes.
Reid, Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788), IV
Basic moral truths are self-evident to conscience, like axioms, not matters of feeling.
Reid, Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788), V, 1