Thomas Reid - Philosopher Shorts

Thomas Reid, a Scottish philosopher of the 18th century, established the Scottish School of Common Sense, which challenged the prevailing skeptical philosophical theories of his time. Reid argued that our perceptions and experiences are reliable foundations for knowledge, emphasizing the importance of common sense and natural instincts. This approach, known as common-sense realism, rejects the idea that a "veil of ideas" separates our minds from the external world and posits a direct relationship between perception and reality. Reid also identified several fundamental beliefs, or first principles, such as the existence of a material world and the reliability of our senses, which he considered essential for understanding and functioning in the world. He believed that these principles are self-evident and do not require proof, contrasting with the prevailing view that all knowledge must be derived from indubitable premises. Reid's work provided a foundation for later philosophers like pragmatists and realists, and continues to influence contemporary thought on perception and knowledge.

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[tomchidwick]

I love this format and content guys! Well done! More please 🙂.

[willardgrey]

Are .. are yall gonna do more of these? That was nice

[kardianos]

What Thomas Reid missed, was that our senses are indeed proxies to reality. But they are generally self-consistent proxies/senses to reality. It is okay if my senses are different then your senses, so long as they are both self-consistent. You can see this with multi-model LLMs, which "sense" images in a totally different way (through pixels) then humans, yet will interpret an image the same way a human will. This is because both human senses and LLM training pipelines are self-consistent. Further more, some extreme cases of Child abuse, as detailed in the book "The Boy who was raised as a Dog" give me doubt as to the notion of an innate "common sense". There is a biological mind that survives reality well, but the initial training senses from the womb and early life provide the this "common sense". This "common sense" disruption can be partially observed when a child is clinically diagnosed (using a standard procedure) with disorganized attachment. When a parent, who acts as a sense/proxy to the child's reality is not self-consistent, the child is unable to form a strategy for meeting their needs. In other words, the "common sense" reality is the formation strategy through self-consistent senses. Thus, the "proof" that reality is real, is the very consistency of reality and senses that occur. So while I agree with Thomas Reid that reality is real and that our perceptions represent reality, I think we can do a better job with the precision of analysis rather then waiving our hands with "common sense".

[rategg]

Increased engagement with critical thinking, as opposed to critical theory, -consciousness, -constructivism.

[jakell]

Are Philosopher shorts the more casual version of Euripides trousers?

[gabrielduran]

The senses are infallible while your judgements about it are not. So when you hear the wind blowing and it sounds like your name, your interpretation that the cause is someone calling your name is the error not the senses.

[Exa]

I prefer your regular content to NoteGPT faux-NPR AI-generated summaries of topics, quite frankly.