ABSTRACT
The view that some knowledge is direct, immediate, and absolute, with no need for the laborious enterprise of scientific inquiry with its tentative results, has been a persistent one since Aristotle’s day. It has assumed various leading forms. One is the claim that there is a type of insight which is intuitive and brings an immediate inner conviction of its certainty. A second is the assertion that authority is the best guide for the solution of problems and the establishment of beliefs. A third appears in the analysis of science itself. This view holds that there are innate or intuitive first principles upon which each science rests. A study of these three claims will make clear the issues involved in the conflict of scientific method and its traditional rivals.
