The Synthetic a Priori
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Compound (molecular) and atomic sentences
Equations are omitted for technical reasons - download the original pdf
Sentences of the English language can be joined together using a variety of joining words or techniques. The conjunction and is the most obvious way in which sentences can be joined together. For example, we have two sentences, "Abraham went to the cinema" and, "Isaac stayed at home with his mother." These are joined by the conjunction and to form the compound sentence, "Abraham went to the cinema, and Isaac stayed at home with his mother." Obviously, there are other ways of forming compound sentences, for example, "Whereas Abraham went to the cinema, Isaac stayed at home with his mother." A compound (or molecular) sentence will be one which is formed by the joining together of two other sentences. We can go the other way, and analyse compound sentences into their constituent parts. For example, "Jeremiah stood on a box because he wished to preach to the crowd." can be analysed into two simpler sentences, "Jeremiah stood on a box" and "Jeremiah wished to preach to the crowd." Some of the meaning has been lost since the conjunction "because" expresses a relationship of purpose (in this case) between the ideas conveyed by the separate sentences. Nonetheless, we have shown that compound sentences can be analysed into simpler sentences. This also implies that the process of analysis can come to an end and that eventually we will reach a point were we cannot break the sentence up any further without the parts ceasing to be sentences. Sentences that cannot be decomposed into simpler sentences will be called atomic sentences. An interesting case is illustrated by the following, "Daniel and Hosea were prophets of the Jewish people." Is this sentence atomic or compound? The difficult comes from the existence of a subject of the sentence "Daniel and Hosea" that refers to two people, not one. Thus, grammatically the sentence is atomic, but logically it can be further decomposed into simpler sentences, thus, "Daniel was a prophet of the Jewish people" and "Hosea was a prophet of the Jewish people." Thus, sentences that are grammatically atomic sentences can be shown to be logically compound sentences.
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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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