This chapter considers a few ingredients that are arguably central to the common sense philosophy, and indicates some consequent problems concerning the question of membership of the Scottish school, starting by addressing the work by Thomas Reid. Reid does not undertake a definition of ‘mind’, but he says enough to indicate what he is writing about: ‘By the mind of a man, we understand that in him which thinks, remembers, reasons, wills’. A brief consideration of the point that the theorists of ideas appropriated terms in common currency and put those terms to uncommon use is presented. The...

This chapter considers a few ingredients that are arguably central to the common sense philosophy, and indicates some consequent problems concerning the question of membership of the Scottish school, starting by addressing the work by Thomas Reid. Reid does not undertake a definition of ‘mind’, but he says enough to indicate what he is writing about: ‘By the mind of a man, we understand that in him which thinks, remembers, reasons, wills’. A brief consideration of the point that the theorists of ideas appropriated terms in common currency and put those terms to uncommon use is presented. The chapter then reviews Reid's theory of perception, dealing first with perception in general and then turning to visual perception in order to note a major achievement of his. It finally reports the contributions made by Henry Home, George Campbell, Dugald Stewart and Sir William Hamilton.