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Every Theory In Philosophy, Which Is Built On Pure Conjecture, Is An Elephant; And Every Theory That Is Supported Partly By Fact, And Partly By Conjecture, Is Like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, Whose Feet Were Partly Of Iron, And Partly Of Clay.

-Thomas Reid

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Every Theory In Philosophy,

Thomas Reid

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Every Theory In Philosophy, Which Is Built On Pure Conjecture, Is An Elephant; And Every Theory That Is Supported Partly By Fact, And Partly By Conjecture, Is Like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, Whose Feet Were Partly Of Iron, And Partly Of Clay.

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Must Acknowledge, That To Act Properly Is Much More Valuable Than To Think Justly Or Reason Acutely.

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For, Until The Wisdom Of Men Bear Some Proportion To The Wisdom Of God, Their Attempts To Find Out The Structure Of His Works, By The Force Of Their Wit And Genius, Will Be Vain.

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Every Man Feels That Perception Gives Him An Invincible Belief Of The Existence Of That Which He Perceives; And That This Belief Is Not The Effect Of Reasoning, But The Immediate Consequence Of Perception. When Philosophers Have Wearied Themselves And Their Readers With Their Speculations Upon This Subject, They Can Neither Strengthen This Belief, Nor Weaken It; Nor Can They Shew How It Is Produced. It Puts The Philosopher And The Peasant Upon A Level; And Neither Of Them Can Give Any Other Reason For Believing His Senses, Than That He Finds It Impossible For Him To Do Otherwise.

We Find Sects And Parties In Most Branches Of Science; And Disputes Which Are Carried On From Age To Age, Without Being Brought To An Issue. Sophistry Has Been More Effectually Excluded From Mathematics And Natural Philosophy Than From Other Sciences. In Mathematics It Had No Place From The Beginning; Mathematicians Having Had The Wisdom To Define Accurately The Terms They Use, And To Lay Down, As Axioms, The First Principles On Which Their Reasoning Is Grounded. Accordingly, We Find No Parties Among Mathematicians, And Hardly Any Disputes.

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Every Theory In Philosophy, Which Is Built On Pure Conjecture, Is An Elephant; And Every Theory That Is Supported Partly By Fact, And Partly By Conjecture, Is Like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, Whose Feet Were Partly Of Iron, And Partly Of Clay.

For The Perception Of The Beautiful We Have The Term "taste"--a Metaphor Taken From That Which Is Passive In The Body And Transferred To That Which Is Active In The Mind.

It Is Natural To Men To Judge Of Things Less Known, By Some Similitude They Observe, Or Think They Observe, Between Them And Things More Familiar Or Better Known. In Many Cases, We Have No Better Way Of Judging. And, Where The Things Compared Have Really A Great Similitude In Their Nature, When There Is Reason To Think That They Are Subject To The Same Laws, There May Be A Considerable Degree Of Probability In Conclusions Drawn From Analogy.

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Every Conjecture We Can Form With Regard To The Works Of God Has As Little Probability As The Conjectures Of A Child With Regard To The Works Of An Adult.

A Philosopher Is, No Doubt, Entitled To Examine Even Those Distinctions That Are To Be Found In The Structure Of All Languages... In That Case, Such A Distinction May Be Imputed To A Vulgar Error, Which Ought To Be Corrected In Philosophy.

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