Reason key terms

A priori

Can be known independently of experience

A posteriori

Only knowable via experience

Analytic

A proposition that’s is true or false purely in virtue of the meaning of the words e.g. all bachelors are unmarried

Synthetic

Not true or false purely in virtue of the meaning of the words

Contingent

May or may not be true

Necessary

Something that has to be true

Innate

Ideas that already exist in the mind before we experience anything

Empiricism

All our knowledge is based upon sense experience. Anything we know comes directly or indirectly from sense experience

Rationalism

At least some of our knowledge comes from reason alone

(rational) intuition

The ability to know something is true just by thinking about it. It is an a priori method of gaining knowledge.

deduction

A method of deriving true propositions from other true propositions (using reason and logical necessity). It is an a priori method of gaining knowledge.