The Significance of Reid’s Practical Ethics

Abstract

It is plausible to hold that the expression’ scottish philosophy’ gained a new prominence with the publication of James McCosh’s book The Scottish Philosophy in 1875. But the idea of something called ‘Scottish philosophy’, or ‘the Scottish School of philosophy’ undoubtedly predates McCosh. Several decades earlier Victor Cousin had given a course of lectures entitled Philosophie Ecossaise and these were published in 1857. Earlier still, Priestley’s Examination of Reid’s Inquiry, which appeared in 1774, was commonly referred to as ‘An Examination of the Scotch Philosophers’.