that every Messenger is in Paradise is even clearer than the foregoing example, and such instances are exceedingly numerous.
Sixth Consideration
Among universal propositions there are some that can be known without recourse to a syllogism. This becomes evident in the present discussion. Undoubtedly, the major premise is broader in scope than the minor, or at least coextensive with it; it can never be narrower. The conclusion, by contrast, is narrower than—or at most equal to—the major, and broader than—or at most equal to—the minor. The same holds for the three terms: the major term is broader than, or equal to, the minor; the middle term is equal to—or broader than—the minor and equal to—or narrower than—the major.
Sense-perception, to be sure, first apprehends particulars and only thereafter moves to universal judgments. A person observes this man, and that man, and yet another, and notes that each one is a sentient, volitional, speaking creature; he then issues a universal judgment that every human being is a sentient, volitional, speaking creature.
Knowledge of a universal proposition is therefore acquired either with the mediation of a syllogism or without it. If mediation were indispensable, and each syllogism required a universal premise, it would follow that the universal could be known only through another universal—an impasse that leads to circularity or infinite regress. Consequently, the process must terminate in some comprehensive universal proposition that is known intuitively; this point they themselves concede.
If, however, it is possible to know one universal proposition without a syllogism, then another may likewise be known without such mediation. For the designation of a proposition as self-evident or theoretical is not an intrinsic characteristic that applies uniformly to all people; it is a relative matter determined by each person’s cognitive state. To the one who grasps it without proof it is self-evident, whereas to the one who requires deliberation and evidence it is theoretical.
In the same way, whether a proposition is known by pure reason, by recurrent mass transmission, by the report of the truthful Prophet, or by sense-perception is not an inalienable attribute of that proposition. The falsity of Musaylimah the Liar, for example, may be known through the statement