Investigating Our Mental Powers

Abstract

Reid begins the abstract {1} of his ‘Inquiry into the Human Mind based on the Principles of Common Sense’ by telling us that ever since the publication of Hume’s ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’ he respected Hume as the greatest metaphysician of the age and that he has learnt more from his writings in matters of this kind than from all others put together. He adds that he has read Hume’s Treatise over and over with great care and that he has perceived that Hume’s system is all founded on one principle, namely, that all objects of human thought are either impressions or ideas, “a principle which I was very much disposed to believe until I read that treatise; but finding that if this is true I must be an an absolute sceptic, I thought it deserved a careful examination”. (Norton [3], p. 128)