THOMAS REID ON MOLYNEUX'S QUESTION

Abstract: Reid's Inquiry discusses two versions of Molyneux's question, offering opposing answers. The first version is used to address whether there are any properties originally perceived in both touch and vision. Although it is tempting to think the second discussion serves the same purpose, this would render pointless various novel features of the question Reid then frames. Instead, I suggest, Reid's second question provides the acid test of one of his central claims against the Ideal system, that the blind can form a conception of visible figure. The issue is not the cross‐modality of perceptual representations, but the amodality of a central concept, as befits the Inquiry's central argumentative ambitions.     

Professional Ethics and the Concept of the 'Merits'

ABSTRACT This paper examines the significance to professional decision-making of the concept of the 'merits'. The merits serve in practical affairs to delineate considerations appropriate to ethical decision-making and require in particular the avoidance of 'self-interest'. Drawing on the example of politics, it is argued that the boundaries of the 'merits'are never fixed across professional fields but rather are determined by the distinctive character of the professional's fiduciary responsibilities; and that properly understood, the merits may demand some 'self-interested'considerations which in the common conception would be rejected. The political example also suggests how the 'ethical'conflict over the accepted boundaries of the merits can mask fundamental normative and political differences which would be better made explicit.