
The Rise and Fall of Scottish Common Sense Realism examines the ways in which five Scottish philosophers - Lord Kames (1696-1782), Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856), and James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864) - tackled a problem which has haunted Western philosophy ever since Descartes: that of determining whether any form of perceptual realism is defensible, or whether the very idea of a material world existing independently of perception and thought is more trouble than it is worth. This century-long conversation about the relation between mind and world led these five Scots to think uncommonly hard about a host of challenging issues in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and meta-philosophy. In order to present each philosopher's views in a fair and reasonably charitable light, Douglas McDermid has tried to identify the main problems each was attempting to solve, to relate his work to that of his predecessors where possible, to describe the mistakes (real or perceived) he was particularly anxious to correct, to explain the internal logic of his position, and to discuss some of the main objections which he anticipated and tried to rebut. McDermid's hope is that even seasoned students of the realism controversy may learn something new and valuable from this exercise, if only because he has chosen to focus not on the usual suspects - Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant - but on a fresh and undervalued cast of characters.
This work investigates whether a defensible form of perceptual realism can be maintained against the skepticism that has persisted in Western philosophy since the time of Descartes. Douglas McDermid, a scholar of modern philosophy, analyzes the intellectual contributions of five prominent Scottish thinkers to determine if the concept of a material world existing independently of human perception remains viable. By examining the internal logic and defensive arguments of these philosophers, the author constructs a framework for understanding their collective attempt to resolve the mind-world problem.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and students of philosophy recognize this text as a focused examination of an often-overlooked tradition within the realism debate. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for those already familiar with the core problems of epistemology.
Page Count:
226
Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192507079
ISBN-13:
9780192507075
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