Abstract

ALVARADO MARAMBIO, José Tomás. THE NOTION OF A PRIORI JUSTIFICATION. discus.filos [online]. 2008, vol.9, n.12, pp. 97-122. ISSN 0124-6127.

This work tries to clarify the notion of a priori justification. First, it is contended that a priori justification should be identified with what appears after rational reflection of our higher cognitive capabilities upon certain content, concerning the truth value of the said propositional content. A priori justification characterised in this way should not be considered infallible, nor especially reliable, nor connected to the necessary, although it is contended that the specific modal content of a proposition seems to require a priori justification. Finally, it is argued that the usual idea that all propositions a priori are analytic should be considered with special caution: there is no clear sense of analyticity to construe this common thesis. This in any way prevents a wide domain where a priori justification is required for the warrant of our judgements whether some concept is or is not applicable in different cases.

Keywords : A priori; justification; epistemology; infallibility; modality; analiticity.