Analytic Truth
True in the virtue of the meaning of the words
Ex. A bachelor is an unmarried man & Triangles have 3 sides
They cannot be denied without a logical contradiction
Synthetic Truth
True in virtue if how the world is
Ex. Grass is green & Water boils at 100 °c
Denial does not lead to a logical contradiction
A Priori Knowledge
Can be acquireed without experience of the external world - through thought alone
Ex. Working out 9 Ă— 7 = 63
A Posteriori Knowledge
Can only be acquired from experience of the external world
Ex. Doing an experiment to discover boiling point of water
Intuition
A Priori method for gaining knowledge
The ability to know something is true just by thinking about it
Ex. Descartes Cogito Argument
Deduction
Method of deriving true propositions from other true propositions using reason
You can deduce statement 3
If A is true then B is true
A is true
Therefore B is true
Rationalism
Not all a priori knowledge is of analytic truths
There is at least one synthetic truth that can be known a priori using intuition and deduction
Empiricism
All a priori knowledge is of analytic truths
There is no synthetic a priori knowledge
Necessary Truth
It’s a contradiction to deny them. They’re “true in all possible worlds”
2 + 2 = 4
Contingent Truths
Truths which simply happen to be the case, they’re true but we can logically imagine a world where they’re false
PSC is on the north side of Winchester BUT we can conceive of a world where it’s on the southern side.
We can’t conceive of a world where parallel lines cross.