BEATTIE, JAMES
(1735–1803)

James Beattie was born in Laurencekirk, Scotland, on October 25, 1735. He received an MA at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1753, became schoolmaster at the Fordoun Parish Church, and in 1760 was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College. He was a member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society with Thomas Reid and other notable Scottish writers. Beattie was known internationally as both a philosopher and poet. His principal philosophical contribution is An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (1770), for which he was awarded a yearly pension of £200 by King George III. His relentless attacks on David Hume in that work sparked a controversy that permanently linked his name with Hume's. He was ill much of his life and endured the progressive insanity of his wife and the early death of his children. He died on August 18, 1803.

Beattie's Essay is an interesting critique of modern metaphysics as well as an important assault on Hume. The crux of his position is this: Truth is that which common sense "determines me to believe," and skeptical metaphysicians have erred by ignoring commonsense intuitions. He discusses eight types of human reasoning that are grounded in common sense: mathematics, external sensation, internal sensation such as moral approval and personal identity, memory, causality, induction, analogy, and testimony. He acknowledges that merely having a commonsense belief does not guarantee that such a belief is true, since one can never be in a privileged position to compare one's commonsense beliefs to absolute reality. Like René Descartes, though, Beattie argues that one can trust that God has not deceived one in giving one faulty commonsense intuitions (2000). He argues further that denying the truth of common sense leads to absurd consequences.

Beattie takes issue with the skeptical trend of modern philosophers since Descartes who begin, he holds, with a few presumably factual general principles and deduce from these a range of noncommonsensical conclusions that call into doubt one's senses, the external world, free will, memory, and any of the previously mentioned eight types of reasoning. Skeptical metaphysics, he argues, is loathsome and harmful to normal affairs of life. About one-fourth of the Essay is a criticism of Hume's views of personal identity, ideas and impressions, necessary connection, the broad scope of the virtues, the natural inferiority of blacks, and other issues. His rhetoric against Hume is harsh, and in a 1771 postscript to the Essay he states that this treatment is necessary for placing the absurdity of skeptics' views in perspective and to combat the danger that skeptics pose to morality. He writes, "Let opinions then be combated by reason, and let ridicule be employed to expose nonsense."

In addition to his polemical Essay Beattie published Dissertations Moral and Critical (1783) on the subjects of memory, imagination, and language, Evidences of the Christian Religion (1786), and a collection of his philosophy lectures titled Elements of Moral Science (1790–1793). One of his more provocative pieces is the allegorical short story "The Castle of Scepticism," which he circulated among friends but that remained unpublished for almost 200 years. It describes how, after falling asleep, he was led on a journey to a surreal land of skeptics who defied commonsense beliefs. During and shortly after his life, Beattie's Essay was defended by Thomas Blacklock (1720–1791) and Dugald Stewart, and criticized by Joseph Priestley, James Steuart (1712–1790), and Thomas Cogan (1736–1818), in writings all of which are reprinted in Early Responses to Reid, Oswald, Beattie, and Stewart (2000).

See also Common Sense.

Bibliography

works by beattie

The Works of James Beattie. 10 vols., edited by Roger J. Robinson. Bristol, U.K.: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1996.

An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, in Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism, edited by James Fieser. Bristol, U.K.: Thoemmes Press, 2000.

"The Castle of Scepticism." In Early Responses to Hume's Life and Reputation. 2 vols., edited by James Fieser. Bristol, U.K.: Thoemmes Press, 2003.

works about beattie

Fieser, James, ed. Early Responses to Reid, Oswald, Beattie, and Stewart. Bristol, U.K.: Thoemmes Press, 2000.

Forbes, Margaret. Beattie and His Friends. Westminster, U.K.: Archibald Constable, 1904.

Forbes, William. An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie: Including Many of His Original Letters. 2 vols. Edinburgh, Scotland: Archibald Constable, 1806.

Robinson, Roger J., ed. The Correspondence of James Beattie. 4 vols. Bristol, U.K.: Thoemmes Continuum, 2004.

James Fieser (2005)