 A number of prominent figures historically in fact held that we could determine more or less perceptually that various things in nature were candidates for design attributions—that they were in the requisite respects design-like. Some, like William Whewell, held that we could perceptually identify some things as more than mere candidates for design (Whewell 1834, 344). Thomas Reid also held a view in this  region,[15]  and Hume’s Cleanthes made suggestions in this direction.