What are the main tenets of Scottish Common Sense Realism?

Scottish Common Sense Realism is rooted in Aristotelian thought and advocates an empirical and scientific philosophy wherein trust of our senses is implicit and necessary. The principles of common sense are fundamental to our accumulation of knowledge of both metaphysical and physical constructs.

What did Thomas Reid mean by common sense?

Common sense looks like an act in these passages. Reid calls it degree of judgment whose purpose is to judge self-evident things. The second reason, why we should consider common sense as a judgment, is that all operations of mind are acts in Reid’s philosophy.

What is the common sense theory?

The term common sense (or, when used attributively as an adjective, commonsense, common-sense or commonsensical), based on a strict deconstruction of the term, refers to what people in common would agree on: that which they intuit (“sense”) as their common natural understanding.

Did Hume believe in common sense?

Hume’s moral theory, I shall here argue, is explicitly and in fundamental ways a common sense theory. It is widely accepted, of course, that Hume found moral distinctions to rest on sentiment, and that he found in the principle of sympathy the means by which individual sentiments come to be experienced by others.

Why is common sense important in philosophy?

I think that common-sense is important in philosophy, at least insofar as our aims as philosophers are more than merely exploratory—that is, insofar as we hope to get things right. For common-sense is just our general ability to assess claims and courses of action.

What was distinctive about the Scottish Enlightenment?

In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole.

What did Thomas Reid believe in?

Though known mainly for his epistemology, Reid is also noted for his views in the theory of action and the metaphysics of personal identity. Reid held an incompatibilist or libertarian notion of freedom, holding that we are capable of free actions of which we are the cause, and for which we are morally appraisable.

What is an everyday example of common sense?

It’s the common-sense view to look before crossing the road, to bring the washing in from the line outside when it’s raining, not to leave a candle alight when you go out of the house, to complete the urgent and important task first, but it’s not common to everyone.

Can you teach common sense?

So, common sense is something that is learned, but there is no direct way of learning it as such. You are born with an ability to build common sense through your genetic intelligence, and as you grow and develop, your common sense will also grow and develop with you.

What is Hume known for?

David Hume is famous for the elegance of his prose, for his radical empiricism, for his skepticism of religion, for his critical account of causation, for his naturalistic theory of mind, for his thesis that “reason is…the slave of the passions,” and for waking Immanuel Kant from his “dogmatic slumber,” as Kant …