ABSTRACT
Locke's account of the grounds of assent or probability should be read with recognition of his concern with three things: the programme of 'natural history', the status of speculative hypotheses and the status of religious authority and faith. He began with two main distinctions. The first is between, on the one hand, 'the conformity of any thing with our Knowledge, Observation and Experience' and, on the other hand, the 'Testimony of others'.118 The second distinguishes propositions concerning particular 'matters of fact' falling within human experience and so capable of human testimony, from propositions concerning what lies 'beyond the discovery of the senses', and so beyond the scope of human testimony.119
