What are the possible sources of knowledge about the world experienced by human beings?
Philosophers call statements about the world we experience “synthetic” and distinguish them from those whose subject is really the meanings of terms, which are called “analytic.” Some philosophers (often called “rationalists”) have held that it is possible to be justified in believing statements which are about the world we experience, even though experience itself never provides adequate evidence for such statements. Such philosophers argued that “Reason” unaided by experience could justify such statements. Statements which can be thus justified independently of experience are called “a priori” and distinguished from those that can be justified only by appeal to experience, “a posteriori” or “empirical” statements. Rationalists thus hold to the possibility of justifying believing “synthetic a priori” statements.
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