Series:

Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid

5 primary works • 12 total works

Book 1

Cover of Thomas Reid's An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense

Thomas Reid's Inquiry has long been recognized as a classic philosophical text. Since its first publication in 1764, there have followed no less than forty editions. The proliferation of secondary literature further indicates that Reid's work is flourishing as never before. Yet Reid scholars have been acutely aware of proceeding without the full textual evidence. There exist thousands of unpublished manuscript pages in Reid's hand, many of which relate directly to the composition of Inquiry. Furthermore, no account has been taken of the successive alterations made to the four editions published in Reid's lifetime. The present edition, therefore, aims to present a complete, critically edited text of the Inquiry, accompanied by a judicious selection of manuscript evidence relating to its composition.

The volume contains an editor preface presenting the raison d'etre for the edition followed by an introduction giving the central argument of the Inquiry by means of an historical and philosophical account of its formation; an account which also indicates the significance of the MSS contained in the section containing related documents. The critical text is based on the fourth life-time edition (1785), while the textual notes include bibliographical details and allusions, translations, references to secondary literature, and selected passages from Reid's MSS.

Book 6

Cover of Thomas Reid on Practical Ethics
The pervasiveness of Protestant natural law in the early modern period and its significance in the Scottish Enlightenment have long been recognised. This book reveals that Thomas Reid (1710-1796) -- the great contemporary of David Hume and Adam Smith -- also worked in this tradition. When Reid succeeded Adam Smith as professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow in 1764, he taught a course covering pneumatology, practical ethics, and politics. This section on practical ethics took its starting point from the system of natural law and rights published by Francis Hutcheson. Knud Haakonssen has reconstructed it here for the first time from Reid's manuscript lectures and papers, and it provides a considerable addition to our understanding not only of Reid but of the thought of the Scottish Enlightenment and of the education system of the time. The present work is a revised version of a work first published by Princeton University Press in 1990 which has long been out of print.

Book 7

Cover of Essays on the Active Powers of Man

Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788) was Thomas Reid's last major work. It was conceived as part of one large work, intended as a final synoptic statement of his overall philosophy. The first and larger part was published three years earlier as Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (edited as volume 3 of the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid). These two works are united by Reid's basic philosophy of Common Sense, which sets out native principles by which the mind operates in both its intellectual and active aspects. The Active Powers shows how these principles are involved in volition, action, and the ability to judge morally. Reid gives an original twist to a libertarian and realist tradition that was prominently represented in eighteenth-century British thought by such thinkers as Samuel Clarke and Reid's near contemporary and acquaintance, Richard Price.

Traditionally seen as an epistemologist, Reid has in much recent work emerged as a significant contributor to the philosophy of action and to ethics. This edition of the Active Powers will be of interest not only to historians of philosophy but also to philosophers working on the theory of action, on the problem of free will, and in moral psychology and meta-ethics.

Book 8

Cover of Thomas Reid on Society and Politics

Thomas Reid on Society and Politics reveals the Enlightenment philosopher's acute comments on the Scottish political, social, and economic scene. Thomas Reid may not have published much on politics, but his manuscripts reveal that he was deeply concerned with social, political, and economic issues throughout his career. Published here for the first time, Reid's Glasgow lecture notes and his papers to learned societies in Aberdeen and Glasgow show that he was an acute commentator on contemporary politics and that his theoretical ideas framed solutions to some of the practical political and economic problems of his day. This volume explores Reid's eclectic system of political economy, which had considerable affinities with the work of Sir James Steuart. It provides an important contemporary template for comparison with Adam Smith, Reid's predecessor in the Glasgow chair of moral philosophy. It shows the continuing influence and transformation of long-standing paradigms within Anglo-Scottish thought. It includes a contextualising and critical introduction. All of the manuscripts are fully annotated with explanatory and textual notes.

Book 9

Cover of Thomas Reid on Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

A philosopher, scholar of the natural world, and gifted mathematician, Thomas Reid holds a distinctive place in the Scottish Enlightenment. This volume reconstructs Reid's lifelong engagement with the physical sciences and makes clear why these fields were central to his epistemology and moral and social philosophy.

Placing Reid's "Essay on Quantity" alongside his previously unpublished writings on mathematics and the physical sciences, Paul Wood shows that, in contrast to Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, Reid was a philosopher rooted not only in the science of man but also in the sciences of nature. A self-professed Newtonian, Reid honed his observational and experimental skills while investigating a broad range of theoretical problems in astronomy, mechanics, optics, electricity, and chemistry. He championed the practical application of mathematics, immersed himself in Newton's mathematical corpus, and addressed foundational questions such as the conceptual basis of Euclidean geometry.

Comprehensive and invaluable, this volume demonstrates that Reid built on his own early precociousness in mathematics to become one of the leading mathematicians and natural philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Cover of An Inquiry Into the Human Mind ...
Thomas Reid's "Inquiry" is recognised as a classical philosophical text with over 40 editions since it first appeared in 1764. This volume provides a complete, critically edited text of the "Inquiry", together with a selection of related documents showing the development of Reid's thought. Textual notes, bibliographical details if previous editions, and a scholarly introduction are included in this contribution to the study of this philosopher.

Cover of Thomas Reid on the Animate Creation
This volume brings together for the first time a significant number of Reid's manuscript papers on natural history, physiology and materialist metaphysics. An important contribution not only to Reid studies but also to our understanding of eighteenth-century science and its context.

Cover of Thomas Reid on Logic, Rhetoric and the Fine Arts
Thomas Reid saw the three subjects of logic, rhetoric and the fine arts as closely cohering aspects of one endeavour which he called the culture of the mind. This was a topic on which Reid lectured for many years in Glasgow and the volume is as near a reconstruction of these lectures as is now possible. The material is virtually unknown now but in fact it relates closely to Reid's published works and in particular to the two late ones, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man and Essays on the Active Powers of Man. When composing these volumes, Reid drew primarily on his lectures on 'pneumatology' which presented a theory of the mental powers, broadly conceived. These lectures were basic to the course on the culture of the mind which explained the cultivation of the mental powers. Although the Essays also included some elements from the material on the culture of the mind, the bulk of the latter was left in manuscript form and Professor Broadie's edition restores this important extension of Reid's overall work.
In addition, this volume continues the Edinburgh Edition's attractive combination of manuscript material and published work, in this case Reid's important and well known essay on Aristotle's logic. This text was corrupted in older editions of Reid's works and is now restored to the state in which Reid left it. This volume underscores Reid's great and growing significance, viewed both as an historical figure and as a philosopher. At the same time, it is of great interdisciplinary importance. While the material emerges directly from the core of Reid's philosophy, as now understood, it will appeal widely to people in literary, cultural, historical and communications studies. In this regard, the present volume is a true fruit of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Cover of Thomas Reid - Essays on the Active Powers of Man
The Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788) was Thomas Reid's last major work. It was conceived as part of one large work, intended as a final synoptic statement of his philosophy. The first and larger part was published three years earlier as Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (edited as vol. 3 of the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid). These two works are united by Reid's basic philosophy of common sense, which sets out native principles by which the mind operates in both its intellectual and active aspects. The Active Powers shows how these principles are involved in volition, action, and the ability to judge morally. Reid gives an original twist to a libertarian and realist tradition that was prominently represented in eighteenth-century British thought by such thinkers as Samuel Clarke and Richard Price.

Cover of Thomas Reid - Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man
This is Thomas Reid's greatest work. It covers far more philosophical ground than the earlier, more popular Inquiry. The Intellectual Powers and its companion volume, Essays on the Active Powers of Man, constitute the fullest, most original presentation of the philosophy of Common Sense. In the process, Reid provides acutely critical discussions of an impressive array of thinkers but especially of David Hume. In Reid's eyes, Hume had driven a deep tendency in modern philosophy to its ultimate conclusions by creating a phantom-world of so-called 'ideas' that sprang from objects of observation; the self was a conglomeration of perceived ideas; and the will as the source of action was nothing but the balance of passionate impulses. Reid's Common Sense philosophy answers these problems by suggesting that sceptics, such as Hume, unavoidably affirm what they purport to deny, namely the existence of a stable external world, of other minds, of the continuity of their own minds, and of their own and other people's ability to ascribe and accept responsibility for actions. We can understand all of this by proper empirical observation and philosophical analysis of the activity of the mind.
Reid's major positive contribution to philosophy is a detailed account of the various innate powers of the mind. While particularly influential in the first half of the nineteenth century, Reid's work has retained a significant role in philosophy, not least in recent years. At the same time, his role in the Scottish Enlightenment is becoming much better understood. This is the only properly established text. It is accompanied by manuscript lectures on the nature and immortality of the soul, as well as helpful editorial annotation and introduction, making it useful to a wide variety of readers. Features * Accurate, reliable and critically established text * The Introduction explains the work's genesis and its place in Reid's system * Annotations provide an understanding of Reid's context * An Appendix contains manuscript material covering an important topic not represented in the hitherto published work

Cover of The Correspondence of Thomas Reid

The Correspondence of Thomas Reid

by Thomas Reid

Published 19 November 2002
Thomas Reid (1710-96) is now recognized as one of the towering figures of the Enlightenment. Best known for his published writings on epistemology and moral theory, he was also an accomplished mathematician and natural philosopher, as an earlier volume of his manuscripts edited by Paul Wood for the Edinburgh Reid Edition, Thomas Reid on the Animate Creation, has shown. The Correspondence of Thomas Reid collects together all of the known letters to and from Reid in a fully annotated form. Letters already published by Sir William Hamilton and others have been reedited, and roughly half of the letters included appear in print for the first time. The letters illuminate virtually every aspect of Reid's life and career, and, in some instances, provide us with invaluable evidence about activities otherwise undocumented in his manuscripts or published works. Through his correspondence we can trace his relations with contemporaries like David Hume and his colleagues at both King's College, Aberdeen, and the University of Glasgow, as well as his engagement with the most controversial philosophical, scientific and political issues of his day.The letters assembled here serve as the starting point for understanding Reid and his place in the Enlightenment.

Cover of Thomas Reid and the University

Thomas Reid and the University

by Thomas Reid

Published 31 January 2021
Reid's ideas on education are a direct development of his theory of the mind, and the writings in this volume form an integral part of his philosophy that has, until now, been ignored.