Scottish common sense realism
Reid emphasized man's innate ability to perceive common ideas and that this process is inherent in and interdependent with judgement.
[5][6] Philosophically, Scottish Realism served as a rebuttal to scepticism while keeping with the influential teachings of Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon.
[8] Reid painstakingly developed his treatise An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense over the course of 40 years, often seeking the input of his contemporary philosophers within the Scottish Enlightenment including Hume.
[10]: 149 In Reid's own words: Essential to first principles, faculties, or mental powers, perform the act of perception and conception (Leher 784).
Senses are an extension of the faculties; they produce conceptions qualities (like how a smell suggests the existence of an object) and ground our beliefs (Nichols and Yaffe 45).
In practice, philosophers of the Scottish school offered scientific explanations to historical events and advocated an unprejudiced and inter-disciplinary approach to education, free from religious and patriotic biases.
[12][13] Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart offered related theories of perception rooted in Scottish Common Sense Realism.
Reidian thought was the "orthodox philosophy of colleges and universities"[4] in the early 18th century and provided an intellectual bedrock for the Age of Enlightenment.
[17]: 180 Hailed by some as the "father of modern psychiatry",[17]: 173 Benjamin Rush's tutelage at the University of Edinburgh imbued him with strong realist tendencies which influenced much of his scientific and political work including his moral opposition to slavery.
[17]: 174 Evidence of the influence of Scottish Common Sense realism can readily be found in the philosophy of both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
[19] New Testament scholar Grant R. Osborne concludes that Scottish Common Sense Realism influenced biblical hermeneutics, that the surface level understanding of Scripture became popular, and individualistic interpretations abounded.
