What Place for the a Priori
Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company; Open Court
Published: 2011
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780812696608
Description: A priori knowledge is alleged to be knowledge whose justification requires no appeal to experience. The issue of whether or not there is a priori knowledge so defined has been a central topic of debate in philosophy since its very beginning, Plato and Aristotle differed on this matter in antiquity, and so did the rationalists and empiricists in early modernity. The issue remains a bone of contention to this day.

If there is a priori knowledge, then there are many different accounts of how it is to be conceived and how it is related to other kinds of knowledge. Following the failure of logical empiricism (which held that only trivialities could be known a priori), the debate over the a priori has become central. Quine's epistemological naturalism has offered an alternative to logical empiricism without returning to the speculative approach of traditional rationalism. But if there are strong examples of a priori knowledge, then naturalism is called into question.

What Place for the A Priori? brings together original essays which grapple with all these questions from several different current perspectives. Some of the authors challenge claims that there is a priori knowledge while others produce arguments supporting the existence of such knowledge. The book gives a diverse and even-handed treatment of the topic without attempting to resolve the matter.

Michael J. Shaffer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Michael L. Veber is Associate Professor of Philosophy at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. --Book Jacket.