Abstract

Conception has a prominent role to play in Thomas Reid’s philosophy of mind, as is apparent from his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (EIP henceforth). The present investigation concerns Reid’s explanation of how objects (be they real or nonexistent) are conceived. According to him, conception functions in two different ways: it is either an ingredient in another act of thinking, such as perception or memory, or it is exercised by itself, sometimes about objects that do not (and will never) exist. Fictional objects can be remembered, but to do so the mind needs an initial, independent grip on them, which can only be achieved by an exercise of “bare conception”