Reid’s Attack on the Theory of Ideas: from a reconsideration of Reid’s arguments to a reassessment of the theory of ideas

Abstract

At the beginning of his book Why Does language Matter to Philosophy, Ian Hacking writes: “it is not until the time of John Stuart Mill’s System of Logic (1844) that one regularly began a philosophy book like this: ‘Book One of Names and Propositions; Chapter 1: of the necessity of commencing with an analysis of language”.(1) Had he traced back the way of words and meanings to Reid’s Essay on the Intellectual Powers of Man Hacking would have been nearer the truth. For Reid’s book begins thus: Essay I, Chapter I: Explications of words. It also constitutes a general and sweeping criticism of the way of ideas which prevailed in philosophy from Descartes to Wolffius.