Essays on the Active Powers of Man
E57894
Essays on the Active Powers of Man is a major philosophical work by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Thomas Reid that explores human will, moral agency, and the foundations of active powers in the mind.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Essays on the Active Powers of Man canonical | 3 |
| Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T466241 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Essays on the Active Powers of Man Context triple: [Scottish Enlightenment, notableWorkProduced, Essays on the Active Powers of Man]
-
A.
Essays, Moral and Political
Essays, Moral and Political is an early collection of philosophical writings by David Hume that explores topics in ethics, politics, and human nature, helping to establish his reputation as a leading Enlightenment thinker.
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B.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
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C.
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect is an unfinished philosophical work by Baruch Spinoza that outlines a method for improving the mind to attain true knowledge and intellectual perfection.
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D.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
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E.
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education is a 1693 treatise by philosopher John Locke that outlines his influential views on the moral, practical, and intellectual education of children.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Essays on the Active Powers of Man Target entity description: Essays on the Active Powers of Man is a major philosophical work by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Thomas Reid that explores human will, moral agency, and the foundations of active powers in the mind.
-
A.
Essays, Moral and Political
Essays, Moral and Political is an early collection of philosophical writings by David Hume that explores topics in ethics, politics, and human nature, helping to establish his reputation as a leading Enlightenment thinker.
-
B.
Tractatus Politicus
Tractatus Politicus is a posthumously published political treatise by philosopher Baruch Spinoza that analyzes the nature of political authority and proposes a rational, secular foundation for the state.
-
C.
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect
Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect is an unfinished philosophical work by Baruch Spinoza that outlines a method for improving the mind to attain true knowledge and intellectual perfection.
-
D.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
-
E.
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Some Thoughts Concerning Education is a 1693 treatise by philosopher John Locke that outlines his influential views on the moral, practical, and intellectual education of children.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (32)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ |
| author | Thomas Reid ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Scotland ⓘ |
| criticizes |
David Hume
ⓘ
skepticism about free will ⓘ |
| discusses |
motives and reasons for action
ⓘ
the concept of power and causation ⓘ the foundations of moral obligation ⓘ the nature of the will ⓘ |
| follows |
Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man
ⓘ
linked to:
Essays on the Active Powers of Man
|
| genre |
moral philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of mind ⓘ |
| hasAuthorNationality | Scottish ⓘ |
| influenced |
19th-century philosophy of action
ⓘ
later common sense philosophers ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
active powers of the mind
ⓘ
free will ⓘ human action ⓘ human will ⓘ moral agency ⓘ moral responsibility ⓘ practical reason ⓘ |
| movement | Scottish Enlightenment ⓘ |
| partOf |
Thomas Reid’s Essays
ⓘ
linked to:
Thomas Reid
|
| philosophicalDiscipline |
ethics
ⓘ
metaphysics of agency ⓘ philosophy of action ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | common sense philosophy ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 18th century ⓘ |
| supports | libertarian conception of free will ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Essays on the Active Powers of Man Description of subject: Essays on the Active Powers of Man is a major philosophical work by Scottish Enlightenment thinker Thomas Reid that explores human will, moral agency, and the foundations of active powers in the mind.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Essays on the Active Powers of Man