The Synthetic a Priori
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Analytic a priori
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For rationalists the existence of the a priori demonstrates that our minds are endowed with extra-sensory powers of reasoning, understanding and intellection. However, empiricists can counter this argument by claiming that there is another way in which we can acquire ideas that a priori in the sense of not capable of being formally derived from sense-experience. This is knowledge of meanings through definition. The standard example is, "A bachelor is an unmarried man." This statement says nothing whatsoever about real or actual bachelors. It is simply a definition of how we use the term "bachelor", and states that the meaning of "bachelor" is equivalent to the meaning of "unmarried man". They are synonymous. There are very few exact synonyms in the English language, which accounts for the prevalence of this example. However, even sentences which offer definitions of inexact synonyms are conveying definitional knowledge. Knowledge of definitions merely fixes the way in which we use language. Ultimately, it is based on convention and agreement. We agree among English language speakers to use the term "bachelor" as a synonym of "unmarried man". Whilst this is substantial knowledge in one sense, and one could not speak English without being familiar with a goodly number of definitions, it is not substantial knowledge requiring a philosophical account of its origin. Its origin is in agreement and convention. So the counterargument to the rationalist claim that there exists a priori knowledge that is not derived from sense-experience is as follows: whilst it is acknowledge that this knowledge is formally independent of experience, it is claimed that the knowledge is not substantial knowledge of reality but merely knowledge of definitions. Hence, this knowledge does not require any further metaphysical speculations or conclusions regarding the nature of the mind, and the existence of this knowledge is consistent with empiricism. Logicians have a term for knowledge that expresses definitions and meanings in this sense, and that is analytic. Thus the claim of empiricists is that all a priori knowledge is analytic, and hence consistent with empiricism. The term analytic implies an opposite and this is the term synthetic. The term synthetic means expressing knowledge that is substantial and is not merely the expression of a definition. However, what synthetic means will be further clarified below. For those that have examined the rationalist argument based on universals (or Forms) this point that definitional knowledge is analytic is not really a reply to the problem of universals. Rationalists posit the existence of universals because they claim that there is a general element in our ability to understand the world that could not be abstracted from sense-experience of particular objects. This argument is considered elsewhere. However, here we pursue the claim of empiricists that all a priori knowledge is analytic.
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Contents of
The Synthetic a Priori
1 Empiricism, Platonism, Innate Ideas and the A Priori
2 Analytic a priori
3 Kant and the synthetic a priori
4 Compound (molecular) and atomic sentences
5 Logically atomic sentences and the philosophy of logical atomism
6 Complex sentences and attitudes
7 Subject and predicate, individual and property
8 Synthetic and analytic, definitions offered by Kant
9 A priori and a posteriori
10 The synthetic a priori in Kant - the Critique of Pure Reason
11 Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, the self and transcendental apperception
12 Empiricist philosophies of mathematics - conventionalism (formalism)
13 Empiricist philosophies of mathematics - the empiricism of J.S. Mill
14 Hybrid empiricist philosophies of mathematics
15 Empiricist philosophies of mathematics - Wittgenstein and non-cognitivism
16 A.J. Ayer and conventionalism - his reply to Kant
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