Thomas Reid’s Commonsense Design Philosophy
On this episode of ID the Future from the archive, host Jay Richards speaks with James Barham about his carefully revised edition of 18th century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid’s lectures on natural theology.
One of the most readable of all philosophers, Reid is well known for his “commonsense philosophy.” Were he living today, says Barham, he would have certainly been part of the intelligent design movement. Though it’s commonly thought that David Hume refuted Reid’s design arguments, Reid actually produced these lectures after Hume’s death, tracing his design argument back to Plato and Cicero, and did not find Hume’s key anti-design arguments at all persuasive, much less daunting or difficult to rebut. Barham also provides some interesting historical bits about how these lectures came to be written down, and some of the advantages this new resource on Thomas Reid offers over earlier Reid scholarship.
Dig Deeper
- Get your own copy of Thomas Reid’s Lectures on Natural Theology.