Of all the major thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, Thomas Reid was the most closely involved with university life as a librarian, teacher and administrator. The writings collected here illustrate his thinking about the aims, scope and value of a liberal education, as well as the foundations of his common sense philosophy.
With an editorial introduction which both recounts his academic career at King's College Aberdeen and the University of Glasgow and traces the connections between his educational ideals and his philosophical doctrines, the volume illuminates Reid's distinctive contribution to the formation of Scotland's 'democratic intellect'.