The A Priori: Its Significance, Sources, and Extent

by Dodd, Dylan; Zardini, Elia

• ISBN13: 9780198799030
• ISBN10: 0198799039
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780192523969
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-05-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Traditionally, a justification for believing something is a priori is if, and only if, it is independent of experience. Throughout Western philosophy since Plato, some of the most divisive questions have been whether a priori justification exists, how it is possible, and how far it reaches. This book is structured around these three main questions.

The first question has recently been modulated as to concern the significance of a priori justification: given the unclarities and presuppositions attached to standard explications of the notion of a priori justification, is it still a useful notion for epistemology? In a tight dialectic, the chapters in this part either attack or defend the theoretical importance of that notion. The second part concerns the sources of a priori justification: since a priori justification is not grounded in experience--our arguably best understood source of justification--in what can it be grounded? The chapters in this part explore the possibility that a priori justification is grounded either in intuition or in understanding. The third part concerns the extent of a priori justification: beyond core cases like mathematical proof, what methods can yield a priori justification? The chapters in this part investigate to what degree and why methods like introspection, testimony, and others have an import on a priori justification. Overall, the book showcases and furthers some of the latest contemporary trends in thinking about these questions.

Author Biography

Dylan Dodd, ,Elia Zardini, Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy Faculty of Philosophy Complutense University of Madrid

Dylan Dodd held postdoctoral fellowships at Syracuse University, the University of St Andrews, and the University of Aberdeen, and taught philosophy at several institutions in the United States before leaving academia. His research was in epistemology and the philosophy of language, amongst other areas of philosophy.


Elia Zardini completed his undergraduate studies in philosophy, mathematics, and history at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the Technical University of Berlin. He obtained his PhD in philosophy from the University of St Andrews in 2008. Since then, he has held positions at the University of St Andrews, the University of Aberdeen, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Barcelona, and the University of Lisbon. He is currently a Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, Chief Research Fellow at the Higher School of Economics, Associate Member of LanCog, and Chief Editor of Disputatio.

Table of Contents

1. Three Questions about the A PrioriI. The Significance of the A Priori2. A Defense of the Significance of the A Priori: A Posteriori Distinction, Albert Casullo3. Reply to Casullo's Defence of the Significance of the A Priori: A Posteriori Distinction, Timothy Williamson4. Williamsonian Scepticism about the A Priori, Giacomo Melis and Crispin Wright5. More Williamsonian Scepticism about the A Priori: A Posteriori Distinction, Timothy Williamson6. The Theoretical Significance of the A Priori: A Posteriori Distinction, Joshua Schechter7. Hybrid Virtue Epistemology and the A Priori, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa and Benjamin W. JarvisII. The Sources of the A Priori8. In Defence of Rational Insight, Laurence BonJour9. The Mystery of the Mystery of Rational Insight, C.S.I. Jenkins10. Intuition and A Priori Justification, Paul Boghossian11. The Underdetermination of the Meaning of Logical Words by Rules of Inference, Elia Zardini12. The Conceptual Route to Apriority, Laura Schroeter13. Can Epistemic Analyticity Explain the A Priori?, Magdalena Balcerak JacksonIII. The Extent of the A Priori14. Experience and the A Priori, Célia Teixeira15. Why Can't Armchair Philosophers Naturalize the Mind?, Sinan Dogramaci16. Testimony and the Scope of the A Priori, Peter J. Graham17. A Priori Knowledge and Persistent (Dis)agreement, Sonia Roca Royes