Chapter 11, On Intuitive Knowledge Summary and Analysis

Many believe that everything we believe we should be able to prove or show to be probable. This view is largely reasonable, since many of our common beliefs can be inferred from other beliefs. However, often the original reason is forgotten. After a long string of questions, we will be driven to a point where there are no further reasons. Something will be the ground and will be obvious.

Self-evidence is not limited to only those principles that can be proved, however, such as ethical principles. There are also general principles and sensations, and sensations seem obvious in two ways—in the existence of a sense-datum and its general features. Memory judgments are also intuitive, although it is often fallacious. Some worry that memory's fallible nature threatens the reliability of intuitive evidence but it...