Abstract

This work is a systematic study of the context, content and development of Thomas Reid's philosophy of language. It also examines the impact of this philosophy on two general concerns of Reid's philosophy as a whole: a critique of the theory of ideas and an emphasis on the philosophical importance of common sense. ;The work consists of three parts. Part one examines the theories of language of Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley, which constituted the context of Reid. Certain issues concerning these three predecessors of Reid, such as the relationship between the Book III and other parts of Locke's Essay, have been discussed also for their own interest. ;Part two, the main part of this work, examines Reid's views on language and analyzes the relationship between these views and his critique of the "way of ideas" and his thoughts on common sense. It manifests the existence and philosophical merits of Reid's philosophy of language. ;Part three assesses Reid's views through comparing Reid with two other thinkers for their conceptions of "object" and the connection between "object" and "ideas". Recognizing the role that these two terms play in the "way of ideas", this part takes Reid and Yolton as the representative critic and defender of the theory of ideas. It contrasts their views with a more appropriate one, that of G. E. M. Anscombe. ;The contributions of this work are the following: Reid has a philosophy of language; its richness entitles it to receive attention both in Reid scholarship and in the modern history of the philosophy of language. ;In a twenty-one-year period between Reid's two works, Inquiry and Essays, Reid has developed his philosophy of language substantially. ;Reid was among the earliest ones who not only realized the importance of a language approach in philosophizing but also practiced systematic clarification of key philosophical terms. ;On the basis of empirical facts, such as the dependence of children's survival on the trustworthiness of ordinary language and the effectiveness of this language in social use, Reid argues powerfully for the priority and essential trustworthiness of ordinary or common sense language and that of common-sense knowledge are like two sides of the same coin. ;In characterizing language, Reid develops and abides by a series of principles of symmetry, which are interesting for the entire field of epistemology. ;Based on a narrowly understood concept of the common or common sense use of a term, such as the term "object", Reid was not tolerant enough of varying uses of language, specifically certain uses of the term "ideas". This limitation weakens his criticism of the "Way of ideas". ;In the study of the context of Reid, it has been discovered that Locke developed his theory of language on the basis of his theory of ideas, without looking at this dependent relationship from a reverse direction. In the basis of Locke's theory of ideas, therefore, there is no theory of language, not even his own theory. This should be an important index in any assessment of Locke's theory of language or his Essay as a whole. ;Finally, this work shows that the early modern history of the philosophy of language deserves more systematic study than it has hitherto received