Defending Conventions as Functionally a Priori Knowledge.

Recent defenses of a priori knowledge can be applied to the idea of conventions in science in order to indicate one important sense in which conventionalism is correct—some elements of physical theory have a unique epistemological status as a functionally a priori part of our physical theory. I will...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Philosophy of Science Vol. 70; no. 5; pp. 1149 - 1161
Autor principal: Stump, David J.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Cambridge University Press Dec2003
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Recent defenses of a priori knowledge can be applied to the idea of conventions in science in order to indicate one important sense in which conventionalism is correct—some elements of physical theory have a unique epistemological status as a functionally a priori part of our physical theory. I will argue that the former a priori should be treated as empirical in a very abstract sense, but still conventional. Though actually coming closer to the Quinean position than recent defenses of a priori knowledge, the picture of science developed here is very different from that developed in Quinean holism in that categories of knowledge can be differentiated.