A Priori: Volume 19

A priori knowledge does not depend on the evidence of experience for its authority. Until recently, the subject was much maligned by epistemologists, who focused attention instead on empirical knowledge and justification. However, in recent years many influential philosophers have advocated that philosophy is an a priori science and their support has sparked renewed interest in the subject. Edwin Mares provides an accessible guide to the central questions and most recent areas of debate within the field of a priori knowledge. He begins by defending the idea that there is a priori knowledge and that this knowledge is important both in its own right and also for other areas of philosophy, such as metaethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of science. Mares evaluates Aristotelian, Kantian, and radical empiricist theories of a priori knowledge (or the rejection of it), and then considers the application of a priori knowledge in specific areas such as logic, mathematics, and ethics. He also discusses questions arising from possible worlds, nativism, analyticity and modality and concludes that we should - and can - adopt more than one theory of a priori knowledge while demonstrating that different theories work better in different fields of knowledge. Book jacket.