Inquiry Into The Human Mind On The Principles Of Common Sense

An Inquiry into the Human Mind, On the Principles of Common Sense by Thomas Reid, first published in 1819, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

Thomas Reid (1710-96) is increasingly being seen as a highly significant philosopher and a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. This edition of Reid's classic philosophical text in the philosophy of mind at long last gives scholars a complete critically edited text of the Inquiry. The critical text is based on the fourth life-time edition (1785). A selection of related documents showing the development of Reid's thought, textual notes, bibliographical details of previous editions, and a full introduction by the editor makes this an important contribution to the study of this increasingly respected philosopher.Key Features:*Complete, critically edited text of the Inquiry accompanied by a judicious selection of manuscript evidence relating to its composition.*Comprehensive Introduction providing an historical and philosophical account of the formation of the Inquiry.*Detailed textual notes which include bibliographical details and allusions, translations, references to secondary literature and selected passages from Reid's MSS.

Thomas Reid (1710-96) is increasingly being seen as a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. His Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense has long been recognized as a classic philosophical text. Since its first publication in 1764, no fewer than forty editions have been published. The proliferation of secondary literature further indicates that Reid's work is flourishing as never before, yet there exist thousands of unpublished manuscript pages in Reid's hand, many of which relate directly to the composition of the Inquiry. Furthermore, no account has been taken of the successive alterations made to the four editions published in Reid's lifetime. This new edition, edited by Derek Brookes, 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 a preface by Brookes followed by an introduction giving the central argument of the Inquiry by means of a historical and philosophical account of its formation. The critical text is based on the fourth lifetime edition (1785), while the textual notes include bibliographical details and allusions, translations, references to secondary literature, and selected passages from Reid's manuscript.

The philosopher Thomas Reid (1710 – 1796), the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and, was with his contemporary David Hume, played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. Reid's classic treatise on phenomenology includes the following chapters: Chapter I. Introduction I. The importance of the subject, and the means of prosecuting it II. The impediments to our knowledge of the mind III. The present state of this part of philosophy—of Des Cartes, Nalebranche, and Locke IV. Apology for those philosophers V. Of Bishop Berkeley—the “Treatise of Human Nature”—and of scepticism VII. The system of all these authors is the same and leads to scepticism VIII. We ought not to despair of a better Chapter II. Of Smelling I. The order of proceeding. II. The sensation considered abstractly III. Sensation and its remembrance natural principles of belief IV. Judgment and belief in some cases precede simple apprehension V. Two theories of the nature of belief refuted. Conclusions from what hath been said VI. Apology for metaphysical absurdities. Sensation without a sentient, a consequence of the theory of ideas. Consequences of this strange opinion VII. The conception and belief of a sentient being or mind, is suggested by our constitution. The notion of relations not always got by comparing the related ideas VIII. There is a quality or virtue in bodies, which we call their smell. How this is connected in the imagination with the sensation IX. That there is a principle in human nature, from which the notion of this, as well as all other natural virtues or causes, is derived X. Whether in sensations the mind is active or passive Chapter III. Of Tasting Chapter IV. Of Hearing I. Variety of sounds. Their place and distance learned by custom, without reasoning II. Of natural language Chapter V. Of Touch I. Of heat and cold II. Of hardness and softness III. Of natural signs IV. Of hardness, and other primary qualities VI. Of extension VII. Of extension VIII. Of the existence of a material world IX. Of the systems of philosophers concerning the senses Chapter VI. Of Seeing I. The excellence and dignity of this faculty II. Sight discovers almost nothing which the blind may not comprehend. The reason of this III. Of the visible appearances of objects IV. That colour is a quality of bodies, not a sensation of the mind V. First inference from the preceding VI. Second. That none of our sensations are resemblances of any of the qualities of bodies VII. Of visible figure and extension VIII. Some queries concerning visible figure answered IX. Of the geometry of visibles X. Of the parallel motion of the eyes XI. Of our seeing objects erect by inverted images XII. The same subject continued XIII. Of seeing objects single with two eyes XIV. Of the laws of vision in brute animals XV. The phenomena of squinting considered hypothetically XVI. Facts relating to squinting XVII. Of the effect of custom in seeing objects single XVIII. Of Dr. Porterfield’s account of single and double vision XIX. Of Dr. Briggs's theory, and Sir Isaac Newton's conjecture on this subject XX. Of perception in general XXI. Of the process of nature in perception XXII. Of the signs by which we learn to perceive distance from, the eye XXIII. Of the signs used in these acquired perceptions Chapter VII. Conclusion