La philosophie écossaise du sens commun: Thomas Reid et Dugald Stewart (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 10 5 moore Kendalrs reading of Locke as a "majority-rule democrat" and C. B. MacPherson 's view of Locke as the first great apologist of capitalism. Where Kendall holds that Locke puts virtually no limit on the power of government to regulate private property in the public interest, Vaughn argues that Locke considers private property to be a natural right rather than one based on the public good and that it is the interests of property owners that largely constitutes the public good. Against MacPherson she writes, "to Locke private property is completely moral in that it grows from men's application of natural law, operates to reward industry and punish sloth, and has the effect of benefitting the entire commonwealth" (p. lo7). Locke is the evangelist, not the apologist, of capitalism. Indeed it is characteristic of the early-modern synthesis Locke achieves that he sees in natural laws the revelation of God. Vaughn nicely specifies this synthesis with respect to Locke's work as an economist and political philosopher. Locke's efforts to increase the wealth of the English nation, to uncover the workings of the economy, and to give a moral foundation to economic society are all guided by a conception of natural laws that governed world trade, the economic order in general, and human morality. These natural laws are discoverable by human reason, and they all evidence the hand of God. PATRICK MURRAY Creighton University Evelyne Griffin-Collart. La philosophie ~cossaisedu sens commun: Thomas Reid et Dugald Stewart. Brussels: Palais des Academies, 198o. Pp. 3o6. Thomas Reid, who has been neglected for a long time, is finally again receiving the attention he deserves. During recent years Reid scholarship has experienced a steady growth in most Anglo-Saxon countries. Evelyne Griffin-Collart's extensive study of Reid and Stewart in La Philosophie ~cossaise du sens commun: Thomas Reid et Dugald Stewart is perhaps a sign that French-speaking philosophers in Europe, who during the early nineteenth century were deeply interested in Scottish philosophy, are also turning their attention to Reid again. In any case, Griffin-Collart acknowledges the importance of the Scots. She offers a detailed account of their common-sense philosophy , because she believes that 'Tanalyse de la perception avec Tegoncentric predicament ', rimpasse du solipsime [sic], la question de ridentit6 personnelle et le probl~me moral du libre arbire [sic] sont envisages dans une perspective int6ressante" by Reid and Stewart, because she thinks that the contribution of the Scots "n'est sans nul doute pas aussi n~g[igeable que les histoires classiques de la philosophie... tendent ~ le laisser croire" (pp. 1 lf.), and because she feels that "l'~cole dcossaise du sens commun constitue ind6niablement une ~tape dans la dialectique qni oppose la philosophie au sens commun" (p. 14). However, as especially the introduction and the conclusion make clear, Griffin-Collart does not only want to give an exegesis of Reid and Stewart's texts. Nor does she understand her work as a return to the earlier French tradition of Royer-Collart, Jouffroy, Cousin, and Boutroux, which found 106 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Reid's critique of sensationalism extremely useful. She wants to show the relevance of Reid and Stewart for a discussion of "les m6thodes et les bases d'une argumentation 'raisonnable' " (p. ll). Her ultimate motive for this study thus appears to be the desire to make Reid and Stewart fruitful for the ends of "Ch. Perelman, chef d'une nouvelle ~cole" (p. 11; see also the preface and pp. 159n., 267n., 294, 299 f., 3ol, 3o2). The introduction is followed by short biographies of Reid and Stewart. Chapter l represents their philosophy of common sense and their "new" method of induction. Chatper 2 deals with their critique of the "theory of ideas." Chapters 3 and 4 summarize the theory of knowledge of these Scottish thinkers. Chapter 5 consists of a discussion of the role of first principles and common notions in Reid and Stewart's works; and the final chapter 6 is concerned with their moral philosophy. Most of the text is taken up by summary and exegesis. Recent work on Reid in English is taken into consideration, but not.consistently...