God Arises
The Method of Argument
~ 81 ~
should then have no direct perception of all
that part of the universe which is now visible
to our eyes. We could only infer it
(p. 48).
Later, he goes on to remark:
Of all the facts in the universe of fact, we can
know some, relatively few, by sense
perception. But how can we come to know of
others? By inference, or reasoning. Inference
or reasoning is a mode of thinking by which,
staring from something known, we end by
forming a belief that there exists a certain fact
hitherto unknown.
How can we be sure that there is any validity
in this thought-process that we call
‘reasoning’? How can we be sure that the
belief which we from by reasoning is true?
The answer to this is that we do begin by
simply assuming that our methods of
reasoning are reliable, that they lead us to
conclusions, which correspond with facts.
Starting from facts known by sense