Scottish common sense realism, also known as the Scottish school of common sense, is a realist school of philosophy that originated in the ideas of Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, Ja
Thomas Reid
David Hume
Declaration of Independence, a painting by John Trumbull depicting the Committee of Five presenting their draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Congress on 28 June 1776. Trumbull's painting appears on the reverse of the United States two-dollar bill.
Princeton Seminary in the 1800s
John Witherspoon
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John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense realism, and wh
Scottish common sense realism
…compared the contributions of Dugald Stewart favorably to works of Aristotle and René Descartes. Scotsman and signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon presided over Princeton University; students under his tutelage included 12 state governors, 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention and future…
Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, c. 1794
The grave of John Witherspoon's father, Rev. James Alexander Witherspoon
The President's House in Princeton, New Jersey. Completed in 1756, Witherspoon lived here from 1768 to 1779; it is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.