The Study On Thomas Reid’s Theory Of Moral Freedom

Thomas Reid was a significant representative of the school of Scottish Common Sense. He proposed the Agent-Causation theory and hold that any kinds of will activity must be caused by the "active power" of actor, by this meaning, actor was the effect of the behavior. While freedom performed one’s "active power" rationaly. Reid considered that man can accomplished his moral freedom, and believed in themselves can behaving freely. Freedom was the basic condition of moral responsibility, human being as a rationally existing object always contained the concept of the free activity. The mistake of the necessitarianism was that they cannot understood the real cause of the actor. Reid presented that ethics likes other subjects, the foundation of it was on the basis of human’s conscience and moral ability. Conscience can only find in human being, that’s a sort of ability root in us long time ago, and it’s the authority of other principle of behavior. The construction of our body decided that we must believed in it. As a Chrisitian, Reid’s philosophy’s final methodology was appeal to belief. Reid’s arguments about common sense principle must depended on the knowledge and morality dependence of human being which given by God, God own the ultimate meaning of freedom.Reid’s common sense principle provided a new mode of thought for philosophy, having a strong enlightening power, but he misunderstood the relationship of the sense and judge to be a front and back succession relationship, that cannot match with his former understanding of cause and effect, and it’s appeared to be ambiguity. Reid was the first philosopher who discuss the Agent-Causation theory, he answered the skepticism’s doubt and refuted them. But when he came to question like free will and etc,he always resorted to the congenital, naturally, intuitive belief of human beings. It’s too simple to turned his way to God, and this arbitrary method showed the avoidance of problems.