premise radical today among the “chattering classes”. For in these circles, common sense is sometimes the most radical and uncommon sense. In an age when rebellion is the new orthodoxy, the old orthodoxy is the only remaining rebellion. Descartes noted that “there is no idea so absurd that it has not been seriously taught by some philosopher.” From the premise that “we know what an apple is”, I move to my second principle, which is only an explication of