Reid, Thomas 1710-96
Scottish philosopher

Born in Strachan, Kincardineshire, he was educated at Aberdeen, and became librarian of Marischal College (1733). He was appointed minister of New Machar in Aberdeenshire (1737) and Professor of Philosophy at Aberdeen (1751). He succeeded Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow (1764-80), and then retired to write. He was leader of the group known as the 'Common Sense' or later the 'Scottish' school, in opposition to the empirical philosophy of David Hume. Reid reasserted the existence of external objects by denying that simple 'ideas' are our primary data. His best-known works are his Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785) and Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788).