Reid's Critique of Berkeley and Hume: What's the Big Idea?

Abstract

Reid thought that the linchpin of his response to skepticism was his rejection of the theory of ideas. I argue that Reid's assessment of his own work is incorrect; the theory of ideas plays no important role in at least one of Berkeley's and Hume's arguments for skepticism, and rejecting the theory is therefore neither necessary nor sufficient as a reply to that argument. Reid does in fact answer the argument, but with his theory of evidence rather than his rejection of the theory of ideas.