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The Analytic Pragmatist Conception of the A Priori: C. I. Lewis and Wilfrid Sellars
Author(s)
Date Issued
2017-12-05
Date Available
2021-08-13T15:48:44Z
Abstract
It is a familiar story that Kant's defense of our synthetic a priori cognition in the Critique of Pure Reason suffered sharp criticism throughout the extended philosophical revolutions that established analytic philosophy, the pragmatist tradition, and the phenomenological tradition as dominant philosophical movements in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. 1 One of the most important positive adaptations of Kant's outlook, however, was the combined analytic and pragmatist conceptions of the a priori that were developed by the American philosophers C. I. Lewis (1883'1964) and Wilfrid Sellars (1912'89), most notably in Lewis's 1929 classic, Mind and the World Order , followed by Sellars's critical reworking of Lewis's outlook in 'Is There a Synthetic A Priori?' ( 1953 ), and other mid-century articles. Both Lewis and Sellars defended central aspects of Kant's analysis of our a priori knowledge of mind-independent physical objects and necessary causal connections. But both also radically transformed Kant's view by defending the idea that there are alternative a priori conceptual frameworks that are subject to an ongoing process of reassessment and replacement on overall pragmatic and explanatory grounds. Furthermore, while Sellars's answer to his question, 'Is There a Synthetic A Priori?' thus represented a partial endorsement of Lewis's pragmatic relativization of the a priori, I argue that Sellars's account of meaning diverged from Lewis in ways that constituted a signifi cant improvement upon the previous 'analytic' defenses of the a priori, not only in Lewis but also in general. This arguably has implications for wider disputes concerning the nature and possibility of a priori knowledge in non-formal domains.
Type of Material
Book Chapter
Publisher
Routledge
Copyright (Published Version)
2018 Taylor & Francis
Subject – LCSH
Lewis, Clarence Irving, 1883-1964
Sellars, Wilfrid, 1912-1989
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
Part of
Baghramian M., Marchetti S. (eds.). Pragmatism and the European Traditions: Encounters with Analytic Philosophy and Phenomenology before the Great Divide
ISBN
9781138094109
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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O'Shea J (2018) 'The Analytic Pragmatist Conception of the A Priori - Lewis and Sellars'.pdf
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