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In this sense, prejudices constitute the contingent and corrigible foundations of knowledge. Such foundations are subject to critique, but only by virtue of further presuppositions not yet subjected to criticism. " On the one hand, this is simply an affirmation of the neo-Kantian claim we have already been discussing: that all knowledge is already interpretation. A second meaning, Westphal argues, is the Hegelian claim that the existence of things is constituted by their relations. More specifically for Derrida, there is no distinction between signs that signify and things that are signified; all reality points beyond itself as a sign for something else.

For example, suppose that the proposition that one plus one is two is self-evident. A child might apprehend the truth of this proposition without understanding the notion of selfevidence at all. Intuitionism is committed to the thesis that a variety of basic moral principles are self-evident, and not to the thesis that it is self-evident that they are self-evident. Second, the intuitionist holds that the self-evidence of basic principles is defeasible. In other words, the positive epistemic status that basic principles initially have can be defeated by counter-evidence.

Moral intuitionism has three main characteristics. First, it affirms an irreducible plurality of basic moral principles. Against Kantian rationalism and utilitarian empiricism, the position denies that there is one or few general moral principles from which all others can be derived. Second, each basic principle refers to some natural ground, which in turn implies some prima facie duty or obligation. " Prima facie duty can be overrided by other factors, including other prima facie duties that one has in the circumstances.