Argument
Self-evidence
Overview
In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof, and/or by ordinary human reason.
Some epistemologists deny that any proposition can be self-evident. For most others, one's belief that oneself is conscious and possesses free will are offered as examples of self-evidence. However, one's belief that someone else is conscious or has free will are not epistemically self-evident.
The following proposition is often said to be self-evident: "A finite whole is greater than, or equal to, any of its parts".
A logical argument for a self-evident conclusion would demonstrate only an ignorance of the purpose of persuasively arguing for the conclusion based on one or more premises that differ from it (see ignoratio elenchi and begging the question).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Self-evidence is discussed.
One important point about self-evidence is made clear by the case of memory, and that is, that self-evidence has degrees: it is not a quality which is simply present or absent, but a quality which may be more or less present, in gradations ranging from absolute certainty down to an almost imperceptible faintness. Truths of perception and some of the principles of logic have the very highest degree of self-evidence…
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Again, self-evidence must not be the same thing as the absence of doubt or the presence of complete certainty. If we are completely certain of a proposition, we do not seek a ground to support our belief. If self-evidence is alleged as a ground of belief, that implies that doubt has crept in, and that our self-evident proposition has not wholly resisted the assaults of scepticism. To say that any given person…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
We say of a fact or statement, that it is proved, when we believe its truth by reason of some other fact or statement from which it is said to _follow_. Most of the propositions, whether affirmative or negative, universal, particular, or singular, which we believe, are not believed on their own evidence, but on the ground of something previously assented to, from which they are said to be _inferred_. To infer a…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
states what it is; author linked in the graph
But that which exists actually and mentally is greater than that which exists only mentally. Therefore, since as soon as the word "God" is understood it exists mentally, it also follows that it exists actually. Therefore the proposition "God exists" is self-evident. Obj. 3: Further, the existence of truth is self-evident.
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
states what it is
An attempt to treat this subject comprehensively would be a transgression of the bounds prescribed to this work, since it would necessitate the inquiry which, more than any other, is the grand question of what is called metaphysics, viz., What are the propositions which may reasonably be received without proof? That there must be some such propositions all are agreed, since there can not be an infinite series of…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Self-evidence
Related ideas
- Argument
- Mathematics
- United States Declaration of Independence
- Is–ought problem
- Alexander Hamilton
- Begging the question
- Free will
- Creator deity
- Consciousness
- Analytic–synthetic distinction
- David Hume
- Epistemology
- Axiom
Place in the tradition
Part of Cultural relativism.