Meet Thomas Reid

 

What’s the deal with Thomas Reid’s funny hat? I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me. In return, I can introduce you to his philosophy in a series of videos airing here on my Rumble account (and here next year on YouTube). I’ll do it without a funny hat–but maybe with a goofy smile or a Bugs Bunny tie I keep in the office.

And why should you care about Thomas Reid’s philosophy? Because it’s the best way to explain the foundations of science; not that there aren’t valuable contributions to that area of study from my other philosophy homeboys David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Alvin Plantinga. (William James, too.)

And one other reason–Kierkegaard may be the captain of the philosophers, and Jean-Luc Marion may be the captain of the next generation of philosophers, but Thomas Reid is the king of Scottish common-sense philosophy.

That stuff is mostly ignored or forgotten now, but it had a big influence in earlier days of US history.  Expect a new video introducing Reid’s presentation of common-sense philosophy each Monday until the series is complete.

Published in Religion & Philosophy
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There are 19 comments.

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  1. Mark Alexander Inactive
    Mark Alexander
    @MarkAlexander

    Thomas Reid is the greatest of the common-sense philosophers.

    • #1
  2. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Thanks for your pointing out where your new videos will be.

    I very much enjoy the ones I have watched in the past. You have such a  nice blend of exuberance and intelligence. Hope others find your vids and like the experience as well.

    • #2
  3. Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker Coolidge
    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker
    @AmySchley

    The hat looks like it’s part of this family:

    • #3
  4. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    The hat looks like it’s part of this family:

    Makes sense. Scotland can be cold.

    • #4
  5. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Thanks for your pointing out where your new videos will be.

    I very much enjoy the ones I have watched in the past. You have such a nice blend of exuberance and intelligence. Hope others find your vids and like the experience as well.

    Thank you!

    (I have a new one for the YouTube channel scheduled for each Monday for more than a year from now. Trying to make Thursday airings a regular or semi-regular thing.  Nudging Rumble towards regular Monday videos for a good long while, and hoping to expand with some real Augustine theology of desire stuff on Thursdays.)

    • #5
  6. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Saint Augustine: What’s the deal with Thomas Reid’s funny hat? I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me.

    Stole one of Ben’s.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    The hat looks like it’s part of this family:

    I watch that channel a lot.

    • #7
  8. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    The hat looks like a Liberty Cap, popular as a symbol of liberty in the 1780s and 1790s.

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    It was the fashion of the day:

    Leonhard Euler.jpg Julien Offray de La Mettrie.jpgPainting of David Hume.jpgFontenelle 2.jpgJohn Smibert - Bishop George Berkeley - Google Art Project.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/3rdEarlOfBurlingtonPortrait.jpg

    I’m sure you could rock it and bring it back.

    • #9
  10. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Arahant (View Comment):

    It was the fashion of the day:

    That might have occurred to me if I were smarter, given the Hume picture.

    I’m sure you could rock it and bring it back.

    Not likely.

    • #10
  11. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):
    Not likely.

    Try it. I think you can do it.

    • #11
  12. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    Video 4:
    Okay, ignore the references to Greco-Roman mythology

    You can’t make me!

    • #12
  13. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):

    Video 4:
    Okay, ignore the references to Greco-Roman mythology

    You can’t make me!

    Did I say that? Yeah, that’s the sorta thing I mighta said. Yeah, I can’t make you.

    • #13
  14. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    That’s what happens when you’ve just gotten out of the shower and the portrait guy shows up.  You just have to go with it.  Those portrait guys don’t wait around.

    • #14
  15. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    We almost got to all kinds of interesting epistemological and metaphysical questions inherent in the topic but Ricochetti are off a funny hat binge by the third comment…  Like trying to continue a fifth-grade math class after some kid farts loudly…

    There is something refreshing about Reid’s approach: Let’s not screw around pretending that there is no external real world or that we can’t know it or that we don’t experience and know it in the same way or that we can’t talk about it meaningfully.  Let’s not pretend that we don’t have a pretty good shared sense of right and wrong.  Don’t get esoteric about memory, personal identity, or mental acts–the same guy does, remembers, acts, thinks over time.  Those acts and events are not separate instances of human beings. If your method puts you at odds with common sense, then your method sucks.  Stop it.

     

    • #15
  16. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    We almost got to all kinds of interesting epistemological and metaphysical questions inherent in the topic but Ricochetti are off a funny hat binge by the third comment… Like trying to continue a fifth-grade math class after some kid farts loudly…

    There is something refreshing about Reid’s approach: Let’s not screw around pretending that there is no external real world or that we can’t know it or that we don’t experience and know it in the same way or that we can’t talk about it meaningfully. Let’s not pretend that we don’t have a pretty good shared sense of right and wrong. Don’t get esoteric about memory, personal identity, or mental acts–the same guy does, remembers, acts, thinks over time. Those acts and events are not separate instances of human beings. If your method puts you at odds with common sense, then your method sucks. Stop it.

    Amen.

    • #16
  17. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Arahant (View Comment):

    It was the fashion of the day:

    Leonhard Euler.jpg Julien Offray de La Mettrie.jpgPainting of David Hume.jpgFontenelle 2.jpgJohn Smibert - Bishop George Berkeley - Google Art Project.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/3rdEarlOfBurlingtonPortrait.jpg

    I’m sure you could rock it and bring it back.

    If you bring it back, be sure to drop it once all of the hip posers catch on. Cause once it’s, like, a thing it’ll go from kinda cool to especially uncool especially fast.

    For the record, I don’t think I could rock it. To Ricochet’s trendsetters: you won’t have to worry about any toe-stepping from me.

    • #17
  18. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Saint Augustine:

    Expect a new video introducing Reid’s presentation of common-sense philosophy each Monday until the series is complete.

    Update:

    10 videos aired so far.

    22 videos total.

    The last one will air on August 9.

    • #18
  19. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    My article explaining how Alvin Plantinga develops Reid’s epistemology was just published in Criswell Theological Review.

    • #19
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