Philosophy of testimony captured in the motto of the Royal Society – ‘Nullius in verba (no man's word)’. Crudely put, the question is: 'How can testimony give us knowledge when we have no reasons of our own?' Coady suggests that there are two approaches to this problem: and Hume is one of the few early philosophers to offer anything like a sustained account of testimony, this can be found in his "‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’" in the section on miracles. The basic idea is that our justification for believing what people tell us comes from our experience of the ‘...constant and regular
Res nullius since a thing completely lost or abandoned is "res nullius", and therefore belonged to the first taker. Specific legislation may be made, e.g. for beachcombing. In English common law, for example, forest laws and game laws have specified which animals are "res nullius" and when they become someone's property. Wild animals are regarded as "res nullius", and as not being the subject of private property until reduced into possession by being killed or captured (see, e.g. "Pierson v. Post"). A bird in the hand is owned; a bird in the bush is not. Even bees do not become property until