- This is clearly shown by the fact that traditional philosophers believe that there is nothing in our understanding that wasn’t first in our senses. However, it’s clear that we’ve never had the ideas of God or the soul through our senses. It seems to me that those who try to understand these ideas through imagination are like people trying to hear sounds or smell odors using only their eyes. In other words, while sight, smell, and hearing all provide similar levels of certainty, neither imagination nor the senses can assure us of anything without the involvement of our understanding.