The A Priori in Philosophy

ISBN-13: 9780199695331 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 328 str.

Albert Casullo; Joshua C. Thurow

Opis

For much of the past two millennia philosophers have embraced a priori knowledge and have thought that the a priori plays an important role in philosophy itself. Philosophers from Plato to Descartes, Kant to Kripke, all endorse the a priori and engage in a priori reasoning in their philosophical discussions. Recent work in epistemology and experimental philosophy, however, has raised questions about both the existence of a priori knowledge and the centrality of the a priori for philosophy. This collection of essays aims to advance the discussion of the a priori and its role in philosophy by addressing four issues. The first is whether intuitions provide evidence for philosophical propositions, whether that evidence is a priori, and whether the results of experimental philosophy affect the evidential and a priori status of intuitions. The second is whether there are explanations of the a priori and what range of propositions can be justified and known a priori. The third is whether a priori justified beliefs are needed in order to avoid some skeptical worries. The fourth is whether certain recent challenges to the existence or significance of the a priori are successful. The contributors include a mix of young and established philosophers, including some of the most prominent voices in philosophy today.

O autorze

Albert Casullo (PhD, University of Iowa) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A well-known expert on the a priori, Casullo is the author of A Priori Justification (OUP, 2003), and Essays on A Priori Knowledge and Justification (OUP, 2012). Joshua C. Thurow (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He previously taught at Mount Marty College (South Dakota) and has published essays on the a priori and other issues in epistemology in various journals and edited volumes.