Paradox

THE COMMON SENSE OF THOMAS REID 2736. That, in the phaenomena of nature, what is tobe, will probably be like what has been insimilar circumstances.Other principles of common sense concern necessarytruths. Some concern grammar, such as, Every completesentence must have a verb. Yet others concern logic: everyproposition is either true or false; none is both truth and false;circular reasoning proves nothing; whatever is affirmed of thegenus may be affirmed of the species. Hume had claimed thatwe cannot form any idea of geometrical figure (such as astraight line) which is not a copy of an earlier impression.Reid counters with common-sense geometry.Reid did not forget how Hume got his foot in the door ofethics by noting that there is no arguing over taste. Reidconfronts Hume at the top of this slippery slope with firstprinciples concern matters of taste. He thinks judgments ofbeauty can be rational and true. Morality also has firstprinciples; for example, no one is to be blamed for what hehas no power to hinder. Reid resists Hume’s view that moraljudgments express feelings rather than judgments.Reid’s list also includes metaphysical first principles: forinstance, thoughts must have a subject (a thinker) andanything that begins to exist must have a cause. Defenders ofthe design argument for the existence of God will find usesfor this principle: “That design and intelligence in the causemay be inferred, with certainty, from marks or signs of it inthe effect.” The universe is so orderly that it is readilydescribed as a giant, intricate machine. Where there is anartifact, it is reasonable to infer a maker of powers andforesight proportional to the effect.