Full Idea
If propositions can have some degree of self-evidence without being true, we must say, where there is a conflict, that the more self-evident proposition is to be retained and the less self-evident rejected.
Gist of Idea
If self-evidence has degrees, we should accept the more self-evident as correct
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch.11)
Book Reference
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.68
A Reaction
This is a key part of Russell's 'moderate rationalism'. Presumably the rejected propositions were therefore not self-evident, and can be used as training for intuitions, by seeing why we got it wrong. Fools find absurd falsehoods self-evidently true.