Quote:
To judge the appearances we receive of things, we should need a judicatory instrument; to verify this instrument, we should need a demonstration; to rectify this demonstration, we should need an instrument: so here we are arguing in a circle.
Seeing the senses cannot decide our dispute, being themselves full of uncertainty, we must have recourse to Reason; there is no reason but must be built upon another reason, so here we are retreating backwards to all eternity.
Author: Montaigne, Michel de
Categories: uncertainty; reason; senses
Attribution: Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), French essayist. “Apology for Raimund Sebond,” p. 49, The Essays of Montaigne, vol. I, trans. by E.J. Trechmann, Oxford University Press, New York and London (n.d.).
Inability to find a criterion of knowledge.
