Scottish common sense realism

Scottish common sense realism, also known as the Scottish school of common sense, is a realist school of philosophy that originated in the ideas of Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, James Beattie, and Dugald Stewart during the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment. Reid emphasized man's innate ability to perceive common ideas and that this process is inherent in and interdependent with judgement. Common sense, therefore, is the foundation of philosophical inquiry. Though best remembered for its opposition to the pervasive philosophy of David Hume, Scottish common sense philosophy was influential in late 18th-century America.

History

The Scottish School of Common Sense was an epistemological philosophy that flourished in Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Its roots can be found in responses to the writings of such philosophers as John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, and its most prominent members were Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid, William Hamilton and, as has recently been argued, Thomas Carlyle. Philosophically, Scottish Realism served as a rebuttal to scepticism while keeping with the influential teachings of Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon. While largely understated for many years, the influence it had on philosophers elsewhere in Europe, not to mention in the United States, is of a considerable magnitude. One central concern of the school was to defend "common sense" against philosophical paradox and scepticism. It argued that common-sense beliefs govern the lives and thoughts even of those who avow non-commonsensical beliefs and that matters of common sense are inherent to the acquisition of knowledge. The qualities of its works were not generally consistent; Edward S. Reed writes, e.g., "[Whereas] Thomas Reid wished to use common sense to develop philosophical wisdom, much of this school simply wanted to use common sense to attack any form of intellectual change."

Teachings The Scottish School of Common Sense was founded by Reid in opposition to Descartes's Theory of Ideas. But the epistemology of sense experience led John Locke and David Hume to a sceptical philosophy that realists found absurd and contrary to common experience. Thus Hume and his sceptical argument would serve as the primary foil to the development of Reid's philosophy. Under the tutelage of George Turnbull, Reid embraced the tenets of Providential Naturalism and its four interconnected tenets; using these as the basis for his refutation of the theory of ideas. Reid painstakingly developed his treatise An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense over the course of 40 years, often seeking the input of his contemporary philosophers within the Scottish Enlightenment including Hume. Reid articulated the basic principle of Common Sense Realism:

"If there are certain principles, as I think there are, which the constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life, without being able to give a reason for them — these are what we call the principles of common sense; and what is manifestly contrary to them, is what we call absurd." Scottish Common Sense Realism is rooted in Aristotelian thought and advocates an empirical and scientific philosophy wherein trust of our senses is implicit and necessary. The principles of common sense are fundamental to our accumulation of knowledge of both metaphysical and physical constructs. However, observation alone cannot account for all knowledge, and truth can be garnered by reflection. In Reid's own words:

"I can likewise conceive an individual object that really exists, such as St. Paul's Church in London. I have an idea of it; I conceive it. The immediate object of this conception is 400 miles distant; and I have no reason to think it acts upon me or that I act on it." Essential to first principles, faculties, or mental powers, perform the act of perception and conception (Leher 784). The intellectual faculties support a wide variety of mental events. Acts of conceiving are set in many of them (Nichols and Yaffe). Examples of conception include judging there is a door in front of me, imagining there is a door in front of me, or reasoning that all doors have handles (Nichols and Yaffe). "Faculties are all fallible" as there is evidence of our faculties and senses but not of objects we conceive (Leher 785). But, "we trust them whether we choose to or not" since they always prevail in daily life (Leher 786). All Reid's philosophy depends on not fallacious faculties. Senses are an extension of the faculties; they produce conceptions qualities (like how a smell suggests the existence of an object) and ground our beliefs (Nichols and Yaffe 45). Freedom is another natural conviction from faculties, which is preloaded and irresistible as first principles prove. Faculties are "the foundation of true philosophy, science, and practical life, and without them we shall lead ourselves into the coalpit of skepticism and despair." (Leher 787). The school taught that every person had ordinary experiences that provided intuitively certain assurance of a) the existence of the self, b) the existence of real objects that could be seen and felt; and c) certain "first principles" upon which sound morality and religious beliefs could be established. These principles laid the foundation for Reid's influential theory of perception. In practice, philosophers of the Scottish school offered scientific explanations to historical events and advocated an unprejudiced and inter-disciplinary approach to education, free from religious and patriotic biases.

Theories of perception Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart offered related theories of perception rooted in Scottish Common Sense Realism. According to Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale University, Reid's philosophy can be non-contentiously reduced to four basic precepts:

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