Thomas Reid
1710-1796 · British Moral Philosophy · Prominent
Reid founded the Scottish school of common sense. Hume had argued that you never touch the world, only your own impressions of it. Reid answered that you see the tree itself, and that any chain of reasoning ending in the denial of that has a false step somewhere in it. The self is one enduring substance, the will is free to choose between real options, and some first truths need no proof under them.
Signature
The position Reid is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging
- Perception
- Direct Realism
Positions on the 13 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Mind
- strongly leans Beyond Brain (91 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (25 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Universals
- leans Realism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging (0 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (91 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (82 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (88 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (91 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ethics
- leans Means (84 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Conviction
- mildly between Uncertain and Certain (54 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
7 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Reid refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Parliamentary System
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Virtue
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Division of Good and Evil
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience / Testimony
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Natural Law / Virtue
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Creation ex Nihilo
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Natural Law / Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Natural Law / Common Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Judgement
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Virtue to Cultivate
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Imago Dei
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?