The Synthetic a Priori
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Kant and the synthetic a priori
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Kant anticipated the above empiricist counter-argument. He was also a rationalist, and also sought to oppose empiricism by arguing that we have knowledge that could not derive from or through the sense. He calls such knowledge synthetic a priori knowledge. His main example is that of mathematics. In order to demonstrate that mathematics (and logic) were synthetic a priori knowledge, that is substantive knowledge about reality that cannot be derived (or abstracted) from experience, Kant sought to clarify the meanings of the terms synthetic and a priori. He presents this clarification in his Introduction to The Critique of Pure Reason. In order to understand his arguments we must first examine some logical definitions regarding sentence structure.
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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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