The a Priori and Its Role in Philosophy PDF
Preview The a Priori and Its Role in Philosophy
Kompa,Nimtz,Suhm(eds.)·TheAPriorianditsRoleinPhilosophy Nikola Kompa, Christian Nimtz and Christian Suhm (eds.) The A Priori and its Role in Philosophy mentis PADERBORN BibliografischeInformationderDeutschenNationalbibliothek DieDeutscheNationalbibliothekverzeichnetdiesePublikation inderDeutschenNationalbibliografie;detaillierte bibliografischeDatensindimInternetüber http://dnb.d-nb.deabrufbar. Gedrucktaufumweltfreundlichem,chlorfreigebleichtem undalterungsbeständigemPapier ∞ ISO9706 ©2009mentisVerlagGmbH Schulze-Delitzsch-Straße19,D-33100Paderborn www.mentis.de AlleRechtevorbehalten.DiesesWerksowieeinzelneTeiledesselbensindurheberrechtlichgeschützt. JedeVerwertunginanderenalsdengesetzlichzulässigenFällenistohnevorherigeZustimmungdes Verlagesnichtzulässig. PrintedinGermany Einbandgestaltung:AnnaBraungart,Tübingen Satz:Rhema–TimDoherty,Münster[ChH](www.rhema-verlag.de) Druck:AZDruckundDatentechnikGmbH,Kempten ISBN:978-3-89785-662-2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The contributions to his volume have grown out of the invited contributions to three international conferences on the a priori – A Priori Justification (Oelde, Westphalia, February 2006), Implicit Definitions and A Priori Knowledge (Berlin, September2006),andTheAPrioriandItsRoleinPhilosophy(Oelde,Westphalia, June 2007). All three conferences have been organised by the Research Network onAPrioriJustificationfundedbytheGermanNationalResearchCouncil(DFG) (DFG number KO 1971/4-1). We are extremely grateful for the funding pro- videdbytheDFG,aswellasforthehelpfulsupportprovidedbythisinstitution and its officials. We would also like to thank the German Society for Analytic Philosophy(GAP)forincludingourBerlinworkshopintheirsixthinternational conference. At the University of Münster, we would like to thank Prof. Scholz and Prof. Rheinwald for their valuable support and priceless encouragement, Sebastian Schmoranzer and Andreas Berg-Hildebrand for all the work they put intotheinitialapplication,andMr.GütschowandMr.Rensmannforthesmooth managementofourfinances.AtBielefeldUniversity,wewouldliketothankLars Dänzerforhisinvaluablehelpineditingthisvolume.Ourgreatestdebt,however, istothosewhomadethethreeconferencesthepleasantandinspiringeventsthey turnedouttobe–Mrs.Teeke,Mr.KortmannandMr.StrangfeldatOelde,who impresseduswiththeirkindhospitality,JulianThomasatBerlin,andlastbutnot leastallthemembersofthenetworkandallparticipantsofourthreeconferences. Weforourpartenjoyeditallalot. CONTENTS ChristianNimtz,NikolaKompaandChristianSuhm Introduction:TheAPriorianditsRoleinPhilosophy 9 WolfgangSpohn APrioriReasons:TwoDifficultNotionsand anEvenMoreDifficultConnection 25 CatrinMisselhorn TwoTypesofAPrioriWarrantinContentPreservation 39 SörenHäggqvist ModalKnowledgeandtheForm ofThoughtExperiments 53 IsidoraStojanovic TheViciousTriangleofAPrioriTruth, ContingentTruth,andLogicalTruth 69 PaulHorwich UngroundedReason 83 AlexBurri APrioriJustification 103 Hans-JohannGlock Apriority,AnalyticityandLanguage 119 ChristianNimtz ConceptualTruthDefended 137 NikolaKompa AnalyticTheoriesoftheAPriori 157 8 Contents OliverScholz TheMethodologyofPresumptionRules– BetweentheAPrioriandtheAPosteriori 173 GeorgesRey Concepts,DefaultsandInternalAsymmetricDependencies: DistillationsofFodorandHorwich 185 StathisPsillosandDemetraChristopoulou TheAPriori:BetweenConventionsandImplicitDefinitions 205 ChristianSuhm RemodelingInferencetotheBestExplanation–Towardsan APrioriJustificationofInduction 221 NikoStrobach 1+1=2–ButWhy? 239 GerhardErnst IsMoralKnowledgeAPrioriKnowledge? 247 Contributors 261 Index 263 ChristianNimtz/NikolaKompa/ChristianSuhm INTRODUCTION: THE A PRIORI AND ITS ROLE IN PHILOSOPHY Why the A Priori is of Concern to Philosophy 1. On the face of it, the a priori is of concern to philosophers because it marks an important subject of philosophical inquiry. Since epistemologists are concerned withknowledgeinitsvarieties,theyareboundtodealwithaprioriknowledge, justastheyareboundtobeconcernedwithperceptualknowledgeandself-knowl- edge.Thereshould,moreover,benodoubtthatinquiringintowhether›apriori‹ primarily characterises a variety of knowledge or a sort of propositions, what a priori propositions are, what potential sources of non-experiential justification theremightbe,andhowaprioriknowledgeisrelatedtoempiricalknowledgeare importantepistemologicaltasksintheirownright.Wewillsubsumeallthisunder thelabeloftheanalyticproject.Afterall,theactualdebateverymuchfocuseson providingananalysisofwhataprioriknowledgeamountsto. Thereis,however,asecondreasonwhytheaprioriisofconcerntophiloso- phers.Philosophyitselfisregularlyclassedasanaprioridiscipline,notablysoby Kant(KrVB18),theLogicalEmpiricists(seeAyer1946,chs.2–3)andcontempo- raryrationalists(seeBealer1998,2002).Todosoisnottoclaimthatphilosophers exclusivelyrelyon,oraimat,aprioriknowledge.Todosoistoholdthatphiloso- phers may embark on a priori inquiries aimed at a priori insights. This idea fits wellwithwhattheyappeartobedoing.Manyphilosophersneitherpursueexten- siveempiricalresearch,norrelymuchonthelatestinsightstheempiricalsciences provide. In dealing with philosophical questions concerning e.g. consciousness, meaning, values, properties, morally good actions, explanation, free will, and the like, they stick to their proverbial armchairs. If philosophy was an a priori discipline,thiscouldeasily beexplained.Sois philosophyanaprioridiscipline? Moregenerally,howdoestheaprioriaffectphilosophicalmethods,aims,topics and research programmes within the different philosophical disciplines? These questions mark hotly contested issues within philosophy, and we will subsume therespectivedebatesundertheheadingofthereflectionproject. Recentcollectionsontheapriorihavemostlybeenconcernedwiththeanalytic project(seeMoser1989,Casullo1999,Boghossian/Peacocke2000).Bycontrast, 10 ChristianNimtz/NikolaKompa/ChristianSuhm the contributions to this book devote a substantial part of their efforts to the reflection project. It goes withoutsaying that these projects are not independent ofoneanother.Rightfullyclassingphilosophicalinquiryasaprioripresupposesa clear grasp of what philosophical inquiry amounts to as well as a robust under- standing of the a priori. However, we do not need to wait for a refined analysis of the a priori to emerge before we can take up the reflection project; a robust working conceptionof a priori knowledge will do. Embarking on the reflection projectismoreoverlikelytoadvancetheanalyticprojectaswell.Worryingabout whetherornottoclassphilosophicalinquiries,approaches,methods,andinsights as a priori should improve our grasp on the a priori. So pursuing the reflection projectshouldbeofvaluetotheanalyticproject. The Analytic Project, or Defining 2. A Priori Knowledge Theepithet›apriori‹iscommonlyemployedtocharacterizeavarietyofpropo- sitional knowledge, thereby marking it off from knowledge that is empirical or aposteriori.Butwhatis aprioriknowledge?Moretothepoint: • WhatdoesittakeforathinkerS toaprioriknowthatp? There are two routes to answering this question. One could either try to trace back the a priori status of someone’s knowledge that p to some characteristic featureofitspropositionalcontentp.Thisapproachexplainsaprioriknowledge intermsofaprioripropositions.Oronecouldtrytotracebacktheaprioristatus of someone’s knowledge that p to some characteristic feature of the thinker’s epistemicrelationtothepropositionalcontentp.Thisapproachexplainsapriori propositions interms ofapriori knowledge. It likewise explainstheapriorityof concepts, epistemic procedures, or whole sciences by the relations they bear to aprioriknowledge. WefindthefirstapproachatworkinHume’sdistinctionbetween›relationsof ideas‹ and ›matters offact‹ (EHU §4), andit figures prominently inthe Logical Empiricists’dealingswiththeaprioriintermsofanalyticpropositions(seeAyer 1946,ch.4).Itmayalsoexplainwhymanycontemporaryaccountsoftheapriori focus on a priori propositions (see e.g. Kripke 1980, 34, Blackburn 1994, 21, Boghossian/Peacocke 2000b,1, Field 2000). However, finding a property other thanthe property of being a potentialcontent of a priori knowledge that marks offaprioripropositionshasprovenchallenging.Thetraditionalideathatapriori propositions are ›true solely in virtue of meaning‹ could foot the bill, but there arereasonstodoubtthatsuchametaphysicalaccountofanalyticityisviable(see Boghossian 1997, Nimtz, this volume). Moreover, there is reason to think that
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