he understands what his father and mother mean when they speak to him. His understanding of his mother’s intent precedes his knowledge of theoretical rational proofs, for in such cases the speaker’s intent is known with immediate certainty. A young child’s understanding of the speech of those who raise him—his father, mother, and others—does not depend on transmitted knowledge of language, grammar, or morphology, nor on ruling out figurative usage, ellipsis, restriction of general terms, ambiguity arising from multiple meanings, shifts in usage, or countervailing rational or revealed evidence. Rather, he knows what they mean by their words with immediate certainty, without any doubt.

Likewise, human beings generally speak to one another and understand one another’s intent without needing any of those premises. They write letters to absent recipients who cannot see them or their gestures, yet those recipients know the writer’s intent with immediate certainty in most of what he writes. Although some of it may be understood only conjecturally or not understood at all, in most cases they know his intent with immediate certainty. This is found