  The light of agent intellect is of course given to us from God — “a certain likeness of the uncreated light, obtained through participation” (1a 84.5c). Without appealing to God, Aquinas sees no way of explaining how we recognize the truth of first principles. Neither deductive nor inductive reasoning can account for the way in which we immediately see that such principles are true. This insight, then, is simply something we are given: