Book Reviews. Gordon Graham Princeton Theological Seminary DOI: /jsp

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1 worked, and about which Mylne could have known nothing. The material drawn from student notes, even if it were more interesting than I suggest, cannot sustain this bridging claim on its own. One question that Cowley does not address is this: Just why was nothing of Mylne s philosophical work published, if not by him then by others? Students (or some of them) spoke highly of his teaching, and they included a number who went on to be distinguished intellectuals themselves, most notably Sir William Hamilton, James McCosh, John Wilson, and John McLeod Campbell. Others among his students, who were less intellectually gifted, came to occupy chairs of philosophy in Glasgow, Belfast, and London. Yet none of them seem to have made any effort to have Mylne s lectures published, and few sought to build in any way upon what they had learned from him. The most obvious conclusion to be drawn, as it seems to me, is that Mylne was a conscientious and often effective teacher, but not a thinker of originality or note. Certainly, he did not put Reid on a pedestal, and he drew on Condillac more than many. This distinguishes him to some degree from several of his contemporaries, but just how much? Alexander Campbell Fraser, another nineteenth-century Scottish philosopher of distinction, became a student at Glasgow in 1833 before transferring to Edinburgh after one year. In his memoir Biographia Philosophica, he recalls watching Mylne on winter mornings, and remarks that at that time Mylne was probably the most independent thinker in the Scottish philosophical professoriate. Probably signals a qualification, and of course most is a relative term. I am inclined to the view that, despite Cowley s best efforts and extraordinary industry, Campbell Fraser said all that can be said. Gordon Graham Princeton Theological Seminary DOI: /jsp Knud Haakonssen and Paul Wood (eds.), Thomas Reid on Society and Politics: Papers and Lectures. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, cii pp. 150 hb. ISBN Readers who are well-acquainted with the contributions which Knud Haakonssen and Paul Wood have made to our understanding of the Scottish Enlightenment will not be surprised to hear that the present volume the eighth in the Edinburgh Edition of Thomas Reid is extremely well done. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the book is a model of its kind; and I am confident that philosophers and historians who pore over Haakonssen and Wood s extended commentary on the manuscripts collected between this book s covers will learn a great deal that is worth knowing about the life, times, and mind of Thomas Reid. What is more, 174

2 scholars scattered around the globe can now scrutinize these manuscripts in their own libraries, instead of trekking all the way to Aberdeen for a furtive peek in the archives. Thomas Reid on Society and Politics may be divided roughly into three parts. The book s core or central section (about 150 pages in length) consists of original manuscript material mostly lecture notes and papers written in Glasgow between 1765 and 1794 which the editors have patiently transcribed and reconstructed. This core or central section is preceded by a lucid and informative co-authored introduction (about 100 pages in length) which supplies the historical context necessary for understanding Reid s socio-political concerns and commitments. The third and final portion of the book consists of painstakingly detailed editorial and textual notes, which take up two-thirds as much space (just under 100 pages) as the manuscripts whose contents they elucidate. The erudition displayed in these notes is remarkable, and readers who are puzzled by some of the more recherché references in Reid s texts will be most grateful to the editors for their guidance. i As readers of this journal know, Reid s philosophical reputation rests upon three books published during his lifetime: An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense (1764), Essays of the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785), and Essays on the Active Powers of Man (1788). Now if we read nothing by Reid but these three classic works, it is very easy to come away feeling convinced that their author was little more than a sincere Christian and a committed providential naturalist (and nativist), a discoverer of first principles and a defender of common sense beliefs, an aggressive critic of the Ideal Theory and modern scepticism, and last but not least a scourge of determinists (hard or soft) and a loyal friend of moral liberty. Yet Reid was more than the sum of these epithets, as the last few decades of scholarly research have shown. (1) For example, thanks to the work of Paul Wood, we know that Reid s intellectual development cannot be understood without reference to his passionate and lifelong interests in mathematics and natural science. 1 (2) Thanks to Alexander Broadie, we also know that Reid, like several other leading figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, took the theory and the practice of rhetoric very seriously. 2 (3) Thanks to Knud Haakonssen, we know that Reid authored a set of sophisticated and perceptive lectures on practical ethics for his classes in Glasgow. 3 (4) Finally, thanks to the editorial labours of Haakonssen and Wood, it is now abundantly clear that Reid devoted a fair amount of time and thought, both as Glasgow s Professor of Moral Philosophy and as a member of Aberdeen s Wise Club and the Glasgow Literary Society, to a variety of concrete social, political, and economic questions. These questions ranged from the permissibility of usury to the virtues of the 175

3 Scottish legal system, from the peculiar excellences of the British Constitution to the advantages and disadvantages of paper credit, from understanding what factors can drive up servants wages to imagining a utopian system of government. Although Reid s views about these matters are neither earth-shaking nor epochmaking, they are almost always (as one would expect) well-reasoned, clearly articulated, and forgive me, but the word is hard to avoid sensible. ii The course of lectures on moral philosophy which Reid delivered in Glasgow from 1765 until 1780 was divided into three main parts: pneumatology (or the science of the human mind), ethics, and politics (xxii, xxxviii). Since the reader may be wondering exactly how Reid approaches the latter topic, I shall now briefly expound Reid s main claims about the nature of politics. A. Is politics an art, or may it be reduced to a science? According to Reid, this is a false dilemma: Politicks like most other Branches of Knowledge that relate to Practice may be considered either as an Art or as a Science (25). B. Considered as an art, politics may be defined as The Art of Modelling & governing a State so as to answer the End intended by it (25; cf. 23). And this intended end, Reid adds, ought to be the good and happiness of the Governed (25; cf. 55). C. Considered as a science, politics may be defined as the Knowledge of those principles by which we may judge of the Constitution and Effects of Government (26). Unless we have such knowledge, Reid observes, we cannot evaluate or assess different systems of government: Knowledge in Politicks enables us to Judge whether such a particular form of Government is properly fitted and adapted to promote the happiness & preserve the Rights of the Subjects (26). D. Since [e]very Science must be grounded on certain principles (26), the science of politics must rest on a rock-solid foundation of first principles or axiomatic presuppositions: [I]f Politicks can be at all reduced to a Science, as I doubt not that but it may, there must be certain first Principles from which all our Reasonings in Politicks are deduced... (26 27). E. The first principles of politics must be taken from the Knowledge of Men (27). Such principles, we are told, must portray human beings as they actually are fallen, flawed, and fallible and not as they ought to be or as wild dreamers and visionaries wish they were: [I]n all political reasoning we must consider, not what Men may do, or what they ought to do, but what it may be expected they will do in the present weak and corrupted State of human nature (144; cf. 23). F. From a moral point of view, human beings may be divided into three broad classes: those who are incorrigibly vicious and wicked ( profligate and abandoned ), those who are perfectly virtuous and good ( of such Perfect Virtue 176

4 and Integrity ), and those who are neither incorrigibly vicious nor perfectly virtuous ( neither so good as they ought to be nor so bad as they might be ) (33 and 31; cf. 56, 138). G. To which of these three classes do the first principles of politics apply? Not to the first class, for its fiendish members, who are little better than wild beasts (33), cannot be effectively governed or restrained by law. Nor do the principles of politics apply to the second class, for its saintly members are so naturally good and pure of heart that they have no need of the restraints of human law and governments (33). H. It follows that the maxims of politics (33) in other words, the first principles of political reasoning deal only with the members of the third class, which comprehends the great bulk of mankind (33). In other words, the only people who are fit to live in society, the only people whose conduct the science of politics needs to concern itself with, are those of us who are morally mediocre neither so good as they ought to be nor so bad as they might be (31). Occupying a middle State between these extreme degrees or virtue and vice (56), such individuals are bad enough to make government necessary (unlike the saints) yet good enough for government to be possible (unlike the wild beasts ). I. The first principles of politics, far from being universal truths admitting of no exceptions, are merely generalizations which purport to describe how most men and women who are fit to live in society tend to act or conduct themselves under certain circumstances: By the Knowledge of Mankind I mean not the Knowledge of the peculiar temper and talents of individuals but the Knowledge of the temper and Disposition, the Principles of Action and general tenor of Conduct that is common to the whole species (27; cf. 23, 32). J. What, then, are some of the first principles of politics? Here are a few: Men will generally be just honest & true where they have no Temptation to be otherwise (23); Men have always a Strong Resentment of Injuries and will resist them where it is in their Power & have commonly some Gratitude for good Offices (23); Tho a cool Desire of Happiness & a Regard to duty have some Influence on the Actions of All men yet it does not appear that either of these are the Prevailing Principles in Most Men (23); It may therefore be expected of the Generality of Men that they will do things contrary either to their real Interest or their Duty when they have Strong temptations, either knowingly or by imposing upon themselves (23); and Few Men will do the most Atrocious Acts of Wickedness even upon a Strong Temptation till they have been long hardened by vicious habits (23; 30 32). iii Reid s views about politics and society, it seems fair to say, have been almost totally ignored by scholars. According to Haakonssen and Wood, this blind spot 177

5 is partly the fault of Dugald Stewart, whose influential Account Of The Life and Writings of Thomas Reid (1803) portrayed its subject as an unworldly scholar who took little interest in the dramatic events which defined his age. In their introduction to Thomas Reid on Society and Politics, Haakonssen and Wood argue that this view of Reid as more or less apolitical is untenable, and they contend that the greatest Scottish philosopher of common sense was in fact deeply engaged with many of the pressing social, economic, and political issues that preoccupied his contemporaries across the Atlantic world (xv). Unless I am very much mistaken, their main arguments are not only powerful; they are virtually unanswerable. notes Douglas McDermid Trent University DOI: /jsp For example, see Paul Wood (2004) Thomas Reid and the Culture of Science, in Terence Cuneo and Rene Van Woundenberg (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Reid, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp Alexander Broadie (ed.) (2004) Thomas Reid on Logic, Rhetoric, and the Fine Arts: Papers on the Culture of the Mind, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. See the review by James Harris ( 3 Knud Haakonssen (ed.) (2007) Thomas Reid on Practical Ethics: Lectures and Papers on Natural Religion, Self-Government, Natural Jurisprudence and the Law of Nations, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. See Alexander Broadie s review ( nd.edu/news/23348-thomas-reid-on-practical-ethics-lectures-and-papers-on-naturalreligion-self-government-natural-jurisprudence-and-the-law-of-nations/). Cf. Gordon Graham s (2010) The Significance of Reid s Practical Ethics, in Sabine Roeser (ed.), Reid on Ethics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp Giovanni B. Grandi (ed.), Thomas Reid: Selected Philosophical Writings,Library of Scottish Philosophy. Exeter: Imprint Academic, pp pb. ISBN Since its beginning in 2004, the Library of Scottish Philosophy has grown to include some sixteen volumes. Of these, seven collect writings by diverse authors on common themes, while nine gather selections from single figures. This suits the general scheme of the Library: not to provide scholars with accurate editions, but to make the writings of Scottish philosophers accessible to a new generation of modern readers in an attractively produced and competitively priced format. This has been made possible by using older editions of texts, as in the case of the present volume of selections edited by Giovanni Grandi, which are taken 178

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