Thomas Reid on Promises and Social Operations of the Human Mind

Abstract

: My paper offers a new interpretation of Reid ’ s account of social operations of the human mind. I argue that it is important to acknowledge the counterpart structure of social operations. By this I mean that for Reid every social operation is paired with a counterpart operation. On the view that I ascribe to Reid, at least two intelligent beings take part in a social operation and the social operation does not come into existence until both the social operation and its counterpart operation have been exercised and the relevant mental thoughts made known to the other being by words or signs.