The Wise Club of Aberdeen

The Aberdeen Philosophical Society or ‘Wise Club’ was founded in 1758.

Its aim was to investigate:

'...every Principle of Science which may be deduced by Just and Lawfull Induction from the Phaenomena either of the human Mind or of the material World; all Observations and Experiments that may furnish Materials for such Induction; the Examination of False Schemes of Philosophy and false Methods of Philosophising; the Subserviency of Philosophy to Arts, the Principles they borrow from it and the Means of carrying them out to their Perfection.’

Thomas Reid, founder of the Wise Club, was a renowned Scottish philosopher.

He founded the Scottish philosophical school of 'common sense', wrote ‘An Inquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense’ and was a professor at King's College Aberdeen and Glasgow University.

The universities played a key role in the Scottish Enlightenment. Almost all of the leading lights of the Enlightenment held professorships. Their ideas and work spread Enlightenment thought to a new generation of lawyers, school teachers, doctors, ministers and philosophers.

Picture credit: King's College, University of Aberdeen. Taken by Nick in exilio and published on Flickr.