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An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense
The senses give us the world itself, not mere ideas – against the skepticism of Berkeley and Hume.
Introduction
Reid published the Inquiry in 1764, the year he moved to Glasgow; before publication he had parts of the manuscript passed to Hume, who replied courteously. After an introduction, the chapters work through the senses one by one – smelling, tasting, hearing, touch and seeing – and ask in each case what we actually perceive. Reid argues that sensations are natural signs which, by the constitution of our nature, suggest the existence of external things. The chapter on seeing contains a “geometry of visibles” that describes visual space without Euclid’s parallel postulate. The book became a founding text of the Scottish school of common sense.
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Connections
Criticizes
- A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge1710 · George Berkeley
- A Treatise of Human Nature1739 · David Hume
Sources: Wikidata
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