Thomas Reid in a Nutshell

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​Thomas Reid taught philosophy at Aberdeen and Glasgow in the later half of the eighteenth century. Reid counters the general scepticism at which, it seemed, philosophy had arrived, especially in the writings of Hume. He does so by pointing out that Hume and others are arbitrary in the demands they make for beliefs to count as knowledge, that they magnify the problem for themselves by supposing that we perceive only ideas, rather than things, and that no sceptic can maintain scepticism in practice. His arguments had huge influence for a century, and their force is again being felt, while some distinctive doctrines - such as the communal character of knowledge - are being given new and appreciative attention.