Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid

Two Common-Sense Philosophers

By Louise Marcil-Lacoste
Categories: Philosophy
Series: McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Hardcover : 9780773510036, September 1982
Ebook (PDF) : 9780773563988, 234 pages, September 1982

Description

Claude Buffier (1661-1737) was a French Jesuit whose philosophy earned Voltaire's praise. Thomas Reid (1710-96) was the one Scottish philosopher whose response to David Hume is still taken seriously. In this comparative study Professor Marcil-Lacoste not only refutes common assumptions, but also shows that, despite their similar concerns and the unfounded charge that Reid plagiarized from Buffier, a comparison of Reid and Buffier illuminates a range of significant epistemological issues. Further, she demonstrates that common-sense philosophies can be varied, subtle, and original. This book also includes an edited and annotated version of Reid's hitherto unpublished curâ primâ on common sense prepared by David Fate Norton.