ABSTRACT
The philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and others was frankly materialistic; and even the cautious and pious J. Locke had toyed with the idea that matter could think. By one of the strange ironies of history the philosophy of Bishop George Berkeley, though intended to refute scepticism, only served as a bridge to the sceptical philosophy of David Hume. Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy, as will be explained presently, was, like Thomas Reid’s realistic philosophy, provoked by Hume’s scepticism. Just as Berkeley arrived at his idealistic philosophy by applying the empirical method more thoroughly than Locke had done, so Hume ended in scepticism by applying Berkeley’s mode of criticism more thoroughly than the good bishop had done. In 1737 Reid was appointed minister at New-Machar, where he stayed till 1752, when he was recalled to Aberdeen as Professor of Philosophy at Edward King’s College, where he also lectured on Mathematics and Physics.
