The debate about whether knowledge is obtained by experience or by reason.
Philosophy and science are rife with questions about the sources of knowledge. Empiricists argue that experience is the sole source of knowledge. Knowledge obtained by experience is called a posteriori (Latin for to the after, implying after or because of experience). Rationalists argue that some of our knowledge is obtained non-experimentally, that is, by pure reason alone. Knowledge obtained non-experimentally is called a priori (Latin for to the prior, implying before or independent of experience).
The origin of these terms is controversial and includes Medieval Latin translations of Euclid's Elements (c. 300 BCE) and thefourteenth-century writings of Albert of Saxonomy. But there is little doubt that these ideas trace back to Ancient Greek thinkers Plato (c. 424 - c. 348 BCE) and Euclid (third century BCE). The first comprehensive description and defence of a priori knowledge was offered by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in the eighteenth century. It is Kant's discussion of the subject in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781) that provides the framework for the contemporary debate.
"Any necessary truth, whether a priori or a posteriori, could not have turned out otherwise."
---Saul Kripke, philosopher and logician
It seems clear that much of what we understand about reality comes through experience. And yet, while our experiences are contingent (they could have been otherwise) and local (we have experienced very little of reality), we seem to know things that hold necessarily and universally true. For example, claims such as "2+2=4" , "there are no married bachelors" , and "there are no round squares" seem true irrespective of what we have experienced, and thus the source of this knowledge, it would seem, cannot be experimental. Dissenters contend that this is the wrong conclusion and that there is sufficient empirical evidence for explaining the uniqueness of these claims. As yet, there is no widespread agreement in this debate, and it continues to motivate new research in philosophy, psychology, and mathematics.
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Source:
"1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think"
-- by Robert Arp.
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