Thomas Reid And Scepticism

Thomas Reid was one of the most important philosophers in the eighteenth century. He saw that philosophy had been led by his great contemporary, David Hume, into the trap of scepticism.To undermine scepticism, he developed his Philosophy of Commen Sense.Although his philosophy had considerable influence on Western thought, he was ignored in the official history of philosophy.His thought has been seriously misunderstood. But the end of twentieth witnessed a revival of interest in his philosophy.This paper attempts to overcome the misunderstanding of Reid and to enhance the understanding of debate between scepticism and anti-scepticism by focusing on his critique of the theory of Ideas and his defence of commen sense. The following is the basic framework of my thesis:The first section examines Reid's attack on the theory of Ideas. Reid thinks that the notion of "idea" is an unnecessary hypothesis. Nothing can be explained with it.The secend section clarifies Reid's theory of perception and consciousness. Reid believes that both perception as outer sense and consciousness as inner sense provide immediate knowledge.The third section examines Reid's argument that as cognitive faculties reason and perception have equal position.The fourth section argues that testimony plays a positive place in our knowledge. Knowledge has a social character. Neither knowledge nor reason can be independent of testimony.The fifth section analysizes Reid's refutation of scepticism and his defence of commen sense. I argue that Reid proposes a new theory of rationality.