Those few ideas
only which have a discernible connexion with our nominal essence, or
any part of it, can afford us such propositions. But these are so few,
and of so little moment, that we may justly look on our certain
general knowledge of substances as almost none at all.
16. Wherein lies the general certainty of propositions. To conclude:
general propositions, of what kind soever, are then only capable of
certainty, when the terms used in them stand for such ideas, whose
agreement or disagreement, as there expressed, is capable to be
discovered by us. And we are then certain of their truth or falsehood,
when we perceive the ideas the terms stand for to agree or not
agree, according as they are affirmed or denied one of another. Whence
we may take notice, that general certainty is never to be found but in
our ideas. Whenever we go to seek it elsewhere, in experiment or
observations without us, our knowledge goes not beyond particulars. It
is the contemplation of our own abstract ideas that alone is able to
afford us general knowledge.
Chapter VII
Of Maxims
1. Maxims or axioms are self-evident propositions. There are a
sort of propositions, which, under the name of maxims and axioms, have
passed for principles of science: and because they are self-evident,
have been supposed innate, without that anybody (that I know) ever
went about to show the reason and foundation of their clearness or
cogency.
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