Famous Scots series

Thomas Reid

This little book is an attempt to present Reid in a fresh light, and in his relations to present-day thought. It deals with the Scottish chapter in that enduring alternation between agnostic despair and endeavour after perfect insight which seems to be a law of the philosophic progress of mankind. Thomas Reid, home-bred and self-contained, is the national representative, in the eighteenth century, of the via media between these extremes. In the concluding chapter I have looked at the philosophical appeal to inspired data of Common Sense, in the wider light of the theistic philosophy of the universe, and not merely as part of an inductive science of the human mind. This connects the theistic postulate of spiritual reason, as the foundation of human experience, with Reids appeal to the ultimate but often dormant necessities of human nature, a subject treated more fully in my Philosophy of Theism (1896). For valuable unpublished materialmore indeed than I could avail myself of within narrow limitsI am indebted to Miss Hilda Paterson, the guardian of manuscript remains and other relics of her ancestor, preserved at Birkwood, in Reids native country of the Dee. I also owe much to Mr. R. S. Rait, now of New College, Oxford, the historian of the Universities of Aberdeen, whose research has done much to illustrate his alma mater in the North. And I[6] am indebted to Dr. Davidson, the Professor of Logic, and to Mr. Anderson, the Librarian, of the University of Aberdeen, for documents to which the space at my disposal forbids more than an occasional reference. Those who desire to study further the chapter in the history of European philosophy in which Reids name is prominent, may be referred to Cousins critical appreciation in his Philosophie cossaise (1857), and to Professor Andrew Seths Balfour Lectures on Scottish Philosophy (1885), in which the Scottish and German answers to Hume are compared. The industry of the late Dr. MCosh has collected, in his Scottish Philosophy (1875), interesting particulars regarding our national philosophers from Hutcheson to Hamilton. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60399
Author: Fraser, Alexander Campbell
Release Date: Sep 30, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English