Praecognita

It having been the common received Opinion amongſt Men of Letters, that Maxims were the foundations of all Knowledge; and that the Sciences were each of them built upon certain præcognita, […]

It is not true that we have either innate ideas or moral instincts that impel us to a love of virtue; for in such cases the most savage tribes among mankind would be the most virtuous; their præcognita, or innate ideas, being but little disturbed by foreign ideas, acquired by education or extensive commerce with the world; and their moral instincts as little disturbed by foreign habits acquired from the same causes.

As a perfect understanding of our subject depends upon a clear and precise knowledge of that part of the body, concerning whose injuries we are about to treat, and as their features and treatment derive importance from a correct idea of the structures implicated, I have not hesitated to enter upon the subject with an anatomical sketch of the component parts, and, if possible, thus, by showing "how parts relate to parts, and these to whole," to start with certain præcognita.

The "character studies" which purport to represent his life abound in philosophical, ethical, theological, and political praecognita which he himself would not have found tenable or even theoretically congruent.

There are no praecognita, therefore anything which is thought to be knowledge is either itself an unjustified assumption, or derived therefrom.