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Single Idea 9342

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 6. A Priori from Reason ]

Full Idea

Understanding is itself based on a priori commitment.

Gist of Idea

Understanding needs a priori commitment

Source

Paul Horwich (Stipulation, Meaning and Apriority [2000], §12)

Book Ref

'New Essays on the A Priori', ed/tr. Boghossian,P /Peacocke,C [OUP 2000], p.169

A Reaction

This sounds plausible, but needs more justification than Horwich offers. This is the sort of New Rationalist idea I associate with Bonjour. The crucial feature of the New lot is, I take it, their fallibilism. All understanding is provisional.

The 7 ideas with the same theme [a priori knowledge as the produce of pure reason]:

9343 To achieve pure knowledge, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things with the soul [Plato]
3617 I aim to find the principles and causes of everything, using the seeds within my mind [Descartes]
5571 Reason contains within itself certain underived concepts and principles [Kant]
12418 In long mathematical proofs we can't remember the original a priori basis [Kitcher]
9342 Understanding needs a priori commitment [Horwich]
9160 Lots of propositions are default reasonable, but the a priori ones are empirically indefeasible [Field,H]
17714 Aristotelians dislike the idea of a priori judgements from pure reason [Mares]