An inquiry into the human mind, on the principles of common sense / By Thomas Reid.

  • Thomas Reid
Date:
1769
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the human mind, on the principles of common sense / By Thomas Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/416 (page 2)
    ~ Sy aa wg a 3 - ( - : 4 : SSS ED ; >. a es 3 worthy of inquiry on its own account, but ftill more worthy on account of the extenfive influ- ence which the knowledge of it hath over every In the arts and fciences which have leaft con- nexion with the mind, its faculties are the en- gines which we muft employ ; and the better we underftand their nature and ufe, their defects and and with the greater fuccefs. But in the nobleft arts, the mind is alfo the fubject upon which we operate. The painter, the poet, the actor, the orator, the moralift, and the {tate{man, attempt to operate upon the mind in different ways, and for diferent ends; and they fucceed, according frame. Nor can their feveral arts ever ftand on a folid foundation, or rife to the dignity of {ci- ence, until they are built on the principles of the human conftitution. Wife men now agree, or ought to agree in this, that there is but one way to the knowledge experiment. By our conftitution, we have a {trong propenfity to trace particular facts and ob- fervations to general rules, and to apply fuch ge- neral rules to account for other effects, or to di- rect ws in the production of them. This proce- dure of the underftanding is familiar to every hu- man creature in the common affairs of life, and it is the only one by which any real difcovery in philofophy can be made. The