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A Thesis in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree REID’S PHILOSOPHY OF MIND DISSERTATION A Thesis in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Ryan Nichols * * * * * The Ohio State University 2002 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor George Pappas, Adviser Professor Glenn Hartz ______________________ Professor Lisa Shabel Adviser, Department of Philosophy Copyright by Ryan Nichols 2002 ABSTRACT Employing the faculty of perception marks the only possible means by which we can gather knowledge of our environment. Despite this, in roughly the century and a half leading up to Reid’s Intellectual Powers, philosophers had widely turned from viewing this wondrous faculty as our companion in the quest for knowledge. Descartes, along with Galileo and Gassendi, begins a trend which, as Reid sees it, culminates in Hume. These thinkers, in increasing degrees, began to harbor a suspicion that our senses cannot be trusted with any epistemologically important responsibilities. This attitude was grounded upon a belief that the immediate objects of perceptual states are not external objects, but rather ideas and impressions. Reid argues that this doctrine, which he calls the ‘Way of Ideas’ and the ‘Ideal Theory’ was as philosophically feeble as it was popular. In the earliest parts of his philosophical career Reid found himself party to a broadly Berkeleyan view of mind and world, but appreciating the implications of Hume’s theories revealed to Reid the error of his ways. From that point onward, Reid takes it upon himself to rehabilitate the study of perception in order to show that, contrary to the Way of Ideas, we—that is, both philosophers and non-philosophers—have knowledge of our environments. ii This includes not only knowledge that there is an external world, but specific knowledge of some of its contents. While the origins of Reid’s interest in the study of perception are perhaps more complicated than they seem, the importance of his work is quite clear, particularly in the face of revivals of the Way of Ideas in contemporary work on both cognition and perception. The purpose of this work is to systematically present Reid’s theory of the mind and its relation to the world. I intend to make clear Reid’s differences with his predecessors about the nature of thought, the structure of the process of perception and about perceptual learning. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation has been greatly improved by criticism from several people that I wish to thank. Foremost among this group is George Pappas. He has examined drafts of every chapter with immeasurable care and scrutiny. He has aided me in avoiding numerous philosophical errors concerning Reid and the empiricists, and has suggested to me many fruitful avenues of philosophical exploration. Gideon Yaffe has read and given me written comments on most of the chapters below. I have learned from Gideon to identify the core of the problem in conceptually clear terms. Kathleen Schmidt and Glenn Hartz commented on several chapters of this project. Kathleen’s expertise on Hume served to correct my interpretations of Hume, often unfairly Reidian in nature. I thank Glenn for continuing to push for clarification on a number of points in this dissertation, and for his helpful comments on my prose. Jim Van Cleve has read a few of the chapters and I thank him for his comments. I thank Daniel Robinson for an enlightening discussion concerning Reid’s analysis of visible figure. This correspondence brought me to see details about visible figure in Reid that I later decided were crucial to an overall understanding of his theory of perception. Phillip Cummins read a version of the chapter on perceptual iv knowledge, and I thank him for his criticisms. Parts of several chapters have been delivered in a number of scholarly settings. I thank the participants of those sessions for their valuable philosophical interchange. Financial assistance has been drawn from several sources I want to recognize. First, the Department of Philosophy at Brown University and James Van Cleve saw fit to employ me as a special assistant to the NEH seminar conducted there in lieu of NEH funding to which I was not privileged as a graduate student. Second, an intellectually profitable year spent as a fellow at the University of Notre Dame in The Center for Philosophy of Religion rewarded me with robust philosophical growth. I thank Alvin Plantinga, director of the Center, for that opportunity and for encouragement in this and other projects. My debts, financial and otherwise, to The Ohio State University run deep. Its Office of International Studies at awarded me an International Dissertation Research Travel Grant in 1998 which allowed me to spend valuable time with Reid’s manuscripts at the Birkwood Collection, King’s College, University of Aberdeen. I thank this office, as well as the administrators of the Birkwood Collection. I express my gratitude to the Department of Philosophy at The Ohio State University, first, for fellowship money in the summers of 1999 and 2000 which allowed me unencumbered time to write. The members of the department have created a philosophically lively environment I do not know what I would’ve done without. Thank you for seven fine years. v I thank my mom, Carol, and dad, Joe, for their encouragement and support, and for their interest in my philosophical work. I thank Emily Lin and Gill McIntosh for their inspirational presences in my life. vi VITA November 1, 1972…………………..………………...…….......Born, Clinton Illinois 1995…………....B.A., Philosophy, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington Illinois FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Philosophy vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………iv Vita………………………………………………………………………………...vi 1. Groundwork for a study of Reid’s Philosophy of Mind…….…...……………..….1 2. Where The Way of Ideas Went Wrong…………………...…….………….….…25 3. Thinking, From Reid’s Point of View…………………...…….………….….…..57 4. Reid on Fictional Objects and the Way of Ideas………………….……………...85 5. The Status and Nature of Visible Figure……………...…….........…….…….….117 6. Perceptual Relativity and Direct Realism……………………..…….………..…150 7. Concepts, Qualities and Reid’s Inheritance from Locke……………..........…….170 8. Learning and Conceptual Content…………..…………………..….……….….212 9. The Structure of Reid’s Theory of Sensation……………….………….....……..259 10. Conclusion…………..………………..………………………………..…...…302 Appendix: The Medieval Origins of Reid’s Discussion of Content……….………345 Bibliography……………………………………..……………………….........…..352 viii CHAPTER 1: GROUNDWORK FOR A STUDY OF REID’S PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 1. REID’S GOALS FOR HIS THEORY OF PERCEPTION In order to get clear about just what we are entitled to expect from Reid’s theory of perception, we must identify as best we can Reid’s own goals in offering it. Reid is not aiming at what some might describe as a ‘philosophical analysis’ of perception, meaning by this term a set of logically necessary and sufficient conditions. He does not analyze the concept of perception, then apply it to the world. Instead, Reid’s goal is to develop an empirical explanation of the operation of the senses, their relation to objects in the world and their place in an account of mind. Sometimes this empirical method makes Reid appear evasive because he repeatedly dodges demands to define terms like ‘perception’ and ‘conception.’ He says, “The most simple operations of the mind, admit not of a logical definition: all we can do is to describe them, so as to lead those who are conscious of them in themselves, to attend to them, and reflect upon them; and it is often very difficult to describe them so as to answer this intention” (I 182b/166).1 But Reid seeks to explain 1 Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (Reid 1994) = ‘E’; Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (Reid 1994) = ‘I’. References to Hamilton will be 1 the conditions in which human agents actually succeed in perceiving physical objects, which is why he constructs his account of perception in such a way that it arises out of his introspective and scientific study. When Reid describes the faculty of perception, he refers to one of two things. First we have a magnificent physical apparatus containing the tools that react in varied and subtle ways to our environment. This perceptual apparatus consists in our sensory organs, e.g. nose, skin, and eyes, in addition to those parts of our brains responsible for processing information gleaned from our senses. We each also possess a mental faculty responsible for unifying and interpreting what we receive from our senses, nervous systems and brains. Reid typically takes it for granted that his readers will know that the term ‘perception’ and its cognates are equivocal in this way, and will be able to determine from the context which aspect of the faculty it is— mental or physical—to which he refers. Reid describes the mental component of perception concisely: [W]e shall find in [perception] these three things: First, Some conception or notion of the object perceived; Secondly, a strong and irresistible conviction and belief of its present existence; and, Thirdly, That this conviction and belief are immediate, and not the effect of reasoning. (E 258a/96) followed by corresponding references to the critical editions prepared by D. Brookes (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University, 1997 (Inquiry) and 2002 (Intellectual Powers)). 2 Taken alone this marks an inadequate characterization of perception. First, Reid does not attempt to include any sensory experience within the scope of a perceptual event, a fact that has befuddled some of his commentators. William Alston is concerned that Reid fails to allow conceptual space for sensation within his mental analysis of perception. (Alston 1989, 37) After all, we take qualitative sensory experience to be what distinguishes perception from other forms of mental activity, like belief. So the above description seems to be too narrow to adequately account for our perceptual experience.
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