Thomas Reid on Logic, Rhetoric and the Fine Arts: Papers on the Culture of the Mind

Thomas Reid saw the three subjects of logic, rhetoric and the fine arts as closely cohering aspects of one endeavour which he called the culture of the mind. This was a topic on which Reid lectured for many years in Glasgow and the volume is as near a reconstruction of these lectures as is now possible. The material is virtually unknown now but in fact it relates closely to Reid’s published works and in particular to the two late ones, and . When composing these volumes, Reid drew primarily on his lectures on 'pneumatology' which presented a theory of the mental powers, broadly conceived. These lectures were basic to the course on the culture of the mind which explained the cultivation of the mental powers. Although the also included some elements from the material on the culture of the mind, the bulk of the latter was left in manuscript form and Professor Broadie’s edition restores this important extension of Reid’s overall work.In addition, this volume continues the Edinburgh Edition’s attractive combination of manuscript material and published work, in this case Reid’s important and well known essay on Aristotle’s logic. This text was corrupted in older editions of Reid’s works and is now restored to the state in which Reid left it.This volume underscores Reid’s great and growing significance, viewed both as an historical figure and as a philosopher. At the same time, it is of great interdisciplinary importance. While the material emerges directly from the core of Reid’s philosophy, as now understood, it will appeal widely to people in literary, cultural, historical and communications studies. In this regard, the present volume is a true fruit of the Scottish Enlightenment.