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Thomas Reid on the First Principles of Speculative, Moral and Political Knowledge Vinícius França Freitas

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Thomas Reid on the First Principles of Speculative, Moral and Political Knowledge Vinícius França Freitas Thomas Reid on the first principles of speculative, moral and political knowledge Vinícius França Freitas To cite this version: Vinícius França Freitas. Thomas Reid on the first principles of speculative, moral and political knowl- edge. Philosophy. Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I; Universidade federal de Minas Gerais, 2017. English. NNT : 2017PA01H221. tel-01784238 HAL Id: tel-01784238 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01784238 Submitted on 3 May 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. UNIVERSITÉ PARIS I PANTHÉON-SORBONNE Thèse pour l’obtention du grade de docteur de l’Université Paris 1 en cotutelle avec l’Université Fédéral de Minas Gerais Présentée et soutenue publiquement par : Vinícius França Freitas THOMAS REID SUR LES PREMIERS PRINCIPES DE LA CONNAISSANCE SPÉCULATIVE, MORALE ET POLITIQUE Directeurs de thèse: M. Laurent Jaffro : Professeur à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Mme. Livia Mara Guimarães : Professeur à l’Université Fédéral de Minas Gerais Composition du Jury: M. Bento Prado de Almedia Ferraz Neto : Professeur à l’Université Fédéral de São Carlos M. Denis Forest : Professeur à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne M. José Raimundo Maia Neto : Professeur à l’Université Fédéral de Minas Gerais M. Marcos César Seneda : Professeur à l’Université Fédéral d’Uberlândia Date de Soutenance: 20 / 11 / 2017 Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Unité de Formation et Recherche de Philosophie (UFR 10) École Doctorale de Philosophie Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques (PHARE) 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my thesis advisors Livia Guimarães and Laurent Jaffro. They consistently allowed this paper to be my own work. It has been an honour to be their Ph.D student. I would like to express my gratitude for the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne. I would like to thank the members of the Grupo Hume – UFMG and the PHARE (Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économique) and the agencies which has supported this research, CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) and CNPQ (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico). I thank professors Bento Prado Neto (UFSCAR), Denis Forest (Paris 1), José Raimundo Maia Neto (UFMG) and Marcos César Seneda (UFU) for kindly accepting my invitation to be a part of the board of the present thesis. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents, my sister and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. 3 RÉSUMÉ Cette dissertation rend compte de la théorie des premiers principes de la connaissance de Thomas Reid (1710-1796), plus particulièrement, de la théorie des premiers principes de la philosophie de l'esprit, de la morale et de la politique. Dans le premier chapitre, je discute des engagements fondationnalistes de Reid dans la philosophie de l'esprit, de la morale et de la politique. Je soutiens qu'il est clairement un fondationnaliste en ce qui concerne la connaissance spéculative et morale, mais qu’il n'est pas clair qu’il conserve les engagements fondationnalistes en matière de savoir politique - les premiers principes de la politique ne sont pas des croyances évidentes en soi: ils ne sont pas justifiés depuis le début de la recherche. Par conséquent, ils n'ont pas ce qu'il faut pour être une croyance fondamentale dans une vision fondationnaliste de la structure de la connaissance. Dans le deuxième chapitre, je discute la compréhension de Reid des sources de la connaissance, à savoir, le sens commun et la connaissance de l'humanité. Je soutiens que si la philosophie de l'esprit et de la morale repose sur les premiers principes du sens commun (croyances immédiates et irrésistibles dues à la constitution originelle de l'esprit), la politique repose sur les premiers principes de la connaissance de l'humanité (croyances dues à un mélange de la sagacité et de l'expérience du philosophe politique qui vit parmi les êtres humains dans une société politique). Dans le troisième chapitre, j'essaie d'expliquer la compréhension de Reid des premiers principes de la philosophie de l'esprit, de la morale et de la politique. Je m’efforce de répondre à ces questions : Qu'est-ce qu'un principe premier de la connaissance? Comment expliquer la distinction entre les principes des vérités contingentes et les principes des vérités nécessaires ? Quelles sont les moyens que nous avons pour identifier les premiers principes de la connaissance ? Le quatrième et dernier chapitre est entièrement consacré à la discussion du sens commun. Plus particulièrement, je discute la manière dont Reid défend les premiers principes du sens commun contre l'attaque sceptique. Les mots clés : premiers principes, sens commun, connaissance de l'humanité, philosophie de l'esprit, morale, politique 4 ABSTRACT This thesis aims to discuss Thomas Reid’s (1710-1796) theory of the first principles of knowledge, more particularly, the first principles of philosophy of mind, morals and politics. In the first chapter, I discuss Reid’s foundationalist commitments in philosophy of mind, morals and politics. I argue that he is clearly a foundationalist about speculative and moral knowledge, but it is not clear if he keeps foundationalist commitments with regard to political knowledge – the first principles of politics are not self-evident beliefs: they are not justified from the start and, therefore, they do not have what is needed for being basic beliefs in a foundationalist view of the structure of knowledge. In the second chapter, I discuss Reid’s understanding of the sources of speculative, moral and political knowledge, namely, common sense and knowledge of mankind. I argue that while philosophy of mind and morals are based upon the first principles of common sense – immediate and irresistible beliefs due to the original constitution of mind, politics is based upon first principles of the knowledge of mankind – beliefs that are due to a mixture of the sagacity and the experience of the political scientist who lives among other human beings in a political society. In the third chapter, I try to explain Reid’s comprehension on the first principles of philosophy of mind, morals and politics. I try to explain what a first principle of knowledge is, how to understand the distinction between the principles of contingent and necessary truths and what the means we have to identify the first principles of knowledge are. The fourth and last chapter is entirely dedicated to common sense. More particularly, I discuss how Reid defends the first principles of common sense from the skeptical attack. Keywords: first principles, common sense, knowledge of mankind, philosophy of mind, morals, politics 5 SUMMARY ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1) UNDERSTANDING REID’S FOUNDATIONALISM .............................. 19 1.1) What is a foundationalist theory of epistemic justification? ......................... 19 1.1.1) The notion of epistemic justification .......................................................... 19 1.1.2) Foundationalist theories of epistemic justification .................................. 22 1.2) Reid’s foundationalist commitments discussed .............................................. 23 1.2.1) A conception of science x a foundationalist view of the structure of knowledge ............................................................................................................... 24 1.2.2) Foundationalism in the philosophy of mind ............................................. 28 1.2.3) Foundationalism in the system of morals ................................................. 31 1.2.4) Foundationalism in the science of politics? .............................................. 34 1.3) Discussing some opposing interpretations ....................................................... 36 1.3.1) Wolterstorff’s antifoundationalist interpretation .................................... 36 1.3.2) Lehrer and Smith’s coherentist interpretation ........................................ 38 1.3.3) Poore’s foundationalist / coherentist interpretation ................................ 40 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 2) UNDERSTANDING REID ON THE SOURCES OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES .......................................................................................................................... 43 2.1) Reid on judgement / belief, evidence and knowledge ..................................... 43 2.1.1) Reid on judgment, belief and knowledge .................................................. 43 2.1.2) Reid
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