Is There a Relationship Between a Priori and Analytic Truths?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

David Hume believed in a priori truths, ones that you can sort of show just by logic and analytic truths. But he also thought there were things which are synthetic, making substantial claims not just given in their definitions but really made in the world. For instance, it seems to be at the time that space has something like Euclidean structure was presupposed when we did our experiments,. We didn't test that rather when we were making other testing claims about the distance between things, the speed of which things moved, we were then presupposing it.

Everybody talks about the truth, but nobody does anything about it. And to be honest, how we talk about truth — what it is, and how to get there — can be a little sloppy at times. Philosophy to the rescue! I had a very ambitious conversation with Liam Kofi Bright, starting with what we mean by “truth” (correspondence, coherence, pragmatist, and deflationary approaches), and then getting into the nitty-gritty of how we actually discover it. There’s a lot to think about once we take a hard look at how science gets done, how discoveries are communicated, and what different kinds of participants can bring to the table.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Liam Kofi Bright received his Ph.D. in Logic, Computation and Methodology from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently on the faculty of the London School of Economics in the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and the Scientific Method. He has worked on questions concerning peer review and fraud in scientific communities, intersectionality, logical empiricism, and Africana philosophy. He is well-known on Twitter as the Last Positivist.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.