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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error_and_50_Principles, page : 44
sense is that of sight. Yet when it looks at the shadow it sees it standing still,
and judges that there is no motion. Then by experiment and observation after
an hour it knows that the shadow is moving and moreover, that it is moving
not by stops and starts, but gradually and steadily by infinitely small distances
in such a way that it is never in a state of rest. Again, it looks at the sun and
sees it small, like the size of a quarter; yet geometrical calculations show that
it is larger than the earth”.
In this and similar cases of sensible knowledge, the sense is a judge
making his judgments, but another judge, the intellect, shows him repeatedly
to be wrong; and the charge of falsity cannot be rebutted.
To this I said: “My reliance on sensible knowledge also has been
destroyed. Perhaps only those intellectual truths which are first principles (or
derived from first principles) are to be relied upon, such as the assertion that
ten is more than three, that the same thing cannot be both affirmed and
denied at one time, that one thing is not both generated in time and eternal,
nor both existent and non-existent, nor both necessary and impossible”.
and judges that there is no motion. Then by experiment and observation after
an hour it knows that the shadow is moving and moreover, that it is moving
not by stops and starts, but gradually and steadily by infinitely small distances
in such a way that it is never in a state of rest. Again, it looks at the sun and
sees it small, like the size of a quarter; yet geometrical calculations show that
it is larger than the earth”.
In this and similar cases of sensible knowledge, the sense is a judge
making his judgments, but another judge, the intellect, shows him repeatedly
to be wrong; and the charge of falsity cannot be rebutted.
To this I said: “My reliance on sensible knowledge also has been
destroyed. Perhaps only those intellectual truths which are first principles (or
derived from first principles) are to be relied upon, such as the assertion that
ten is more than three, that the same thing cannot be both affirmed and
denied at one time, that one thing is not both generated in time and eternal,
nor both existent and non-existent, nor both necessary and impossible”.