Brian P. A. Copenhaver

The strange Italian voyage of Thomas Reid: 1800–60

Thomas Reid, an important philosopher in his own time, was never really forgotten after his death. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Scots themselves valued him above Hume, while the French explored his thought as one major alternative to Condillac and the later Idéologues – the other choice being Kant. In this way, Reid became the head of the ‘Scottish School’ in the influentialHistoire comparée published by Joseph de Gérando in 1804. Since French books were more likely to be read than English or German works in Napoleonic Italy, it is no surprise that De Gérando’s schema is visible in subsequent Italian philosophy, which put Reid at the leading edge of philosophical progress, crediting him with major innovations that Kant either exploited or, to his discredit, ignored. For contemporary students of Reid, his posthumous Italian journey may be strange to contemplate, but travel is often instructive.