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Topic: A priori and a posteriori knowledge

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	A Priori and A Posteriori [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
		The a priori/a posteriori distinction is epistemological and should not be confused with the metaphysical distinction between the necessary and the contingent or the semantical or logical distinction between the analytic and the synthetic.
		The distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge thus broadly corresponds to the distinction between empirical and nonempirical knowledge.
		An a priori proposition is one that is knowable a priori and an a priori argument is one the premises of which are a priori propositions.
	www.iep.utm.edu /a/apriori.htm (5580 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)
		The terms "a priori" and "a posteriori" are used in philosophy to distinguish between two different types of propositional knowledge.
		Thus, attempts to define clearly or explain a priori and a posteriori knowledge are part of a central thread in epistemology, the study of knowledge.
		The phrases "a priori" and "a posteriori" are Latin in origin, which literally mean "from what comes before" and "from what comes later", respectively (or, less literally, "before experience" and "after experience", respectively).
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/A_posteriori (1967 words)

	Epistemology - Psychology Wiki - A Wikia wiki
		A priori knowledge is knowledge gained or justified by reason alone, without the direct or indirect influence of any particular experience (here, experience usually means observation of the world through sense perception.
		The fields of knowledge most often suggested as having a priori status are logic and mathematics, which deal primarily with abstract, formal objects.
		Pragmatism about knowledge holds that what is important about knowledge is that it solves certain problems that are constrained both by the world and by human purposes.
	psychology.wikia.com /wiki/Epistemology (3743 words)

	A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE REVISITED
		The account of a priori knowledge is embedded within a general approach to knowledge (the psychologistic approach) according to which whether or not a state of true belief counts as a state of knowledge depends on the causal process that generated that state.
		Historically, the a priori/a posteriori distinction has had functional significance in that items of a priori knowledge aren’t just supposed to be generated in a special way but, once they are in place, to be deployed differently from their empirical counterparts.
		The knowledge of contemporary mathematicians may be proximally produced by their reflections on what they have absorbed from the past, reflections that do not depend on any specific sensory input, but it is ultimately dependent on the collective experiences of the tradition in which they stand.
	www.columbia.edu /~psk16/apkr.htm (9660 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		Kripke forcefully argues that the concept of a priori knowledge is epistemic but the concept of necessary truth is metaphysical and, hence, one cannot assume without argument that they are coextensive.
		Knowledge that such propositions are necessary is based on thought experiments: the inability to conceive that some object is different from itself.
		Alvin Goldman, "A Priori Warrant and Naturalistic Epistemology," Philosophical Perspectives 13 (1999), 1-28, argues that psychological studies are relevant to the existence of a priori knowledge.
	www.unl.edu /philosop/people/faculty/casullo/OUP_Essay.htm (19100 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The a priori/a posteriori distinction is an epistemological distinction and therefore should not be confused with the metaphysical distinction between the necessary and the contingent, nor with the semantical or logical distinction between the analytic and the synthetic.
		Two aspects of the a priori/a posteriori distinction require clarification: The first is the conception of experience on which the distinction turns; and The second is the sense in which a priori knowledge is independent of such experience.
		An initial characterization The terms “A priori” and “a posteriori” refer primarily to how, or on what basis, a proposition might be known.
	www.iep.utm.edu /2/apriori-edited.doc (210 words)

	A Priori vs. A Posteriori Knowledge (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		A priori knowledge is knowledge that we can have "prior to experience".
		We can arrive at such knowledge through reason alone (sitting in our armchairs by the fire, as it were, and simply using our powers of reasoning).
		A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that we can have only after we have certain experiences.
	www.unc.edu /~theis/phil32/apriori.html (118 words)

	Universals
		In chapters 9 and 10, Russell presents his theory of universals as the best explanation — perhaps the only explanation — for a priori knowledge (statements that, like the claims of mathematics, can be known to be true independently of experience).
		Russell does not really argue that we have such knowledge; he just states that it is ‘obvious’ that we do have it, and then supplies a means of acquiring it: abstraction.
		The difference between a priori and a posteriori knowledge is cleared up in the fourth point.
	www.philosophy.ubc.ca /bartha/p240f04/univ_ho.htm (499 words)

	The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		Kant's primary thesis was to justify the existence of synthetic a priori knowledge.
		His innovative contribution to epistemology was to demonstrate that knowledge is an active, rather than a passive process, and that the mind has a priori categories through which experience is received.
		Kant defines knowledge that is independent of experience as a priori, and knowledge that is gained from experience as a posteriori.
	www.faithnet.org.uk /Philosophy/Kant/kant_philosophy.htm (5625 words)

	wlkant2
		What Kant means by the a priori is that which is independent from our knowledge of the world that is arrived at through our senses, which can be defined in contradistinction as a posteriori knowledge.
		To see why that a priori knowledge, even though it has its origin in the subject, and this is why Kant speaks of a Copernican Turn, but is not subjective in the sense in which is merely a representation of the human mind, we need to clarify certain terminological distinctions [4].
		Universal laws of nature, however, are not the same as a priori conditions of knowledge, for the former are contingent and the latter are necessary for the representation of an object.
	www.arasite.org /wlkant2.html (1531 words)

	Kant (1724-1804)
		Kant thinks Descartes is right that we can have a priori knowledge, but he doesn’t accept Descartes’ assumption that a posteriori knowledge (knowledge from experience and observation) mostly leads to mistakes.
		What Kant is saying is that we get information from our senses (knowledge begins with experience), but we filter all that information through our minds that were structured from birth to process and understand that experience (knowledge doesn’t arise out of experience).
		The result of Kant’s work is that we have both a priori knowledge (the structures of the mind with which we are born) and a posteriori knowledge (the observations and experiences we get from the senses).
	people.clarkson.edu /~amam/LS19604/Kant.htm (442 words)

	Knowledge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.
		There are a number of alternatives proposed, including Robert Nozick's arguments for a requirement that knowledge 'tracks the truth' and Simon Blackburn's additional requirement that we do not want to say that those who meet any of these conditions 'through a defect, flaw, or failure' have knowledge.
		Knowledge management seeks to understand the way in which knowledge is used and traded within organisations and treats knowledge as self-referential and recursive.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/A_priori_and_a_posteriori_knowledge (1006 words)

	GAZM.org - Your Digital Campfire - constant intellectual stimulation
		Or about Descartes, who was a firm supporter of innate knowledge because not accepting the knowledge leads to contradiction and “because we do not need to use our experiences to wonder about our existence.” So an example for this, would be my talent in the fine arts.
		The knowledge they each hold will be different and the way they share that experience with others will be different.
		Maybe language is a priori, or the ability to learn languages, but so much after that relies on our decisions and every person makes different decisions.
	www.gazm.org /viewpost160.aspx (578 words)

	Chapter 5 of Fergus Duniho's Masters Thesis
		It does not distinguish between a priori and a posteriori knowledge, nor does it distinguish between analytic and synthetic knowledge.
		Synthetic a priori knowledge serves the same function in Kant's theory that axiomatic knowledge serves in the Active Mind theory.
		Kant believes that synthetic a priori knowledge may be false even though it is impossible for us to disbelieve it.
	www.ling.rochester.edu /~duniho/MS-Thesis/Ch._5-The_Implications.html (1507 words)

	Philosophical Dictionary: Antecedent-Aquinas
		Thus, an a posteriori concept is one that can only be understood in empirical terms, and a posteriori knowledge relies upon evidence as its warrant.
		An a priori argument, then, is taken to reason deductively from abstract general premises, while an a posteriori argument relies upon specific information derived from sense perception.
		The necessary truth of an a priori proposition can be determined by reason alone, but the contingent truth of an a posteriori proposition can be discovered only by reference to some matter of fact.
	www.philosophypages.com /dy/a5.htm (1113 words)

	a priori vs. a posteriori
		Canonical Formulation: Roughly, a priori knowlegde is knowledge independent of all experience while a posteriori knowledge is knowledge possible only through experience.
		He takes a different view mathematics and logic, fields traditionally accorded a priori status.
		The former line tries to show that all a priori propositions are in some sense trivial, or analytic, or matters of notation or conventions of language.
	orpheus.ucsd.edu /phenom/old/apripost.html (211 words)

	Preparing for Quiz 4
		What is the difference between a priori and a posteriori knowledge?
		The question of whether or not Jupiter has moons is an astronomical matter; it’s not a question of theology or Scripture.
		Meditation VI, Descartes finally concludes that he has knowledge of the world external to his mind.
	instruct.westvalley.edu /lafave/phil1_quiz4info.html (278 words)

	UMass Philosophy - Graduate Courses S00
		Basic topics in the theory of knowledge, such as the distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge, knowledge of the external world, and the nature of experimental inference.
		The topic will be "Moral Epistemology." We will consider recent and classic views about the possibility of knowledge of facts about values.
		This seminar will address recent work in cognitive psychology and cognitive development on the status and genesis of the so-called "theory of mind" (TOM)-- that body of knowledge we exploit in explaining and predicting the behavior of ourselves and our conspecifics.
	www.umass.edu /philosophy/grad_courses/S00.htm (709 words)

	UMass Philosophy - Graduate Courses F97
		Introduction to the metatheory of first-order logic, presenting some of the most important metatheoretic results, including the completeness, soundness and decidability for classical sentential and predicate logic.
		Critical investigation of the principal topics in epistemology: the nature (or definition) of knowledge; the distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge and between analytic and synthetic truth; the problem of perception; induction and probability logic.
		Assigned readings will depend on what is in print when course is given.
	www.umass.edu /philosophy/grad_courses/F97.htm (413 words)

	A priori and a posteriori (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The correct title of this article is a priori and a posteriori.
		The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
		For more details on this topic, see Analytic-synthetic distinction.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/A_posteriori (1998 words)

	PHIL P312 3062 Topics in the Theory of Knowledge (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		In this course we will explore central problems in the theory of knowledge such as what knowledge is, the distinction between the origin and the justification of beliefs, inferential and non-inferential knowledge, a priori and a posteriori knowledge, the structure of knowledge (foundationalism, coherentism, holism), naturalistic accounts of knowledge, and skepticism.
		We will discuss arguments of past philosophers as well as contemporary views on these issues.
		There will be a selection of required readings from Descartes, Hume, Kant and from some contemporary philosophers (for example, C.I. Lewis, Quine, Chisholm, Nozick, Stroud, BonJour, and others).
	www.indiana.edu /~deanfac/blspr97/phil/phil_p312_3062.html (124 words)

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