ABSTRACT

The two chief things that Reid wishes to say about his first principles are that they are innate, and that they yield true beliefs. In his published writings, Reid very often runs these two claims together, which leads commentators to conclude that he is confused about the distinction between them.1 The confusion seems to be present in the following typical passage:

Opinions that appear so early in the minds of men that they cannot be the effect of education or of false reasoning, have a good claim to be considered as first principles. Thus, the belief we have, that the persons about us are living and intelligent beings, is a belief for which [i.e. for the truth of which], perhaps, we can give some reason, when we are able to reason; but we had this belief before we could reason, and before we could learn it by instruction. It seems, therefore, to be an immediate effect of our constitution [i.e. innate].