Key terms

• antecedent

  • existed before/logically proceeds
• analytic

  • true in virtue of the meaning of the words, denial leads to logical contradiction
  • eg. triangles have 3 sides
• synthetic

  • true in virtue of how the world is, denial does not lead to logical contradiction
  • Paris is the capital of France
• innatism

  • we have innate, a priori knowledge
  • eg. Plato (meno) and Leibniz (necessary truths)
• empiricism

  • we do not have innate knowledge
  • eg. Locke (concepts)
• rationalism

  • we can acquire some knowledge through intuition and deduction (thought)
• a priori

  • knowledge acquired through thought alone, no experience of the external world
  • eg. working out 900 divided by 7
• a posteriori

  • knowledge that can only be acquired through experience of the external world
  • eg. experiment to discover the temperature water boils