Can you explain the difference between Kant's a priori and a posteriori?
By: Venice at: 11th August, 2009
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Answered
Answer:
Venice,
Kant provides two distinguishing traits for the a priori: necessity and universality. Whenever we make claims that hold necessarily and without exception, such assertions are priori. For example, if you say: "the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees," this claim is not something that holds for most angles, but might have rare exceptions. You also mean your claim as something necessary, for it is not possible to conceive of a triangle, say, having 178 degrees. It must have 180 to be a triangle.
When claims are merely general, but neither necessary nor universal, then they are a posteriori. For example, "houses last long time." You learn this type of thing through experience, and there is no reason why things could not be otherwise or some houses fall down in a few months.
There is another, closely connected distinction, that between synthetic and analytic judgments. If you want to know more about it, just let me know.