The A Priori: Its Significance, Sources and Extent

Oxford University Press, 2026.

Under the general editorship: Zardini E., D. Dodd

Traditionally, a justification for believing something is a priori if and only if it is independent of experience. Throughout Western philosophy ever since Plato, some of the most divisive questions have been whether a priori justification exists, how it is possible, and how far it reaches. This book is structured around these three main questions. The first part concerns a recent modulation of the question of the existence of a priori justification in terms of its significance: given the unclarities and presuppositions attaching to standard explications of the notion of a priori justification, is it still a useful notion for epistemology? In a tight dialectic, the chapters in this part either attack or defend the theoretical importance of that notion. The second part concerns the sources of a priori justification: since a priori justification is not grounded in experience—our arguably best understood source of justification—in what can it then be grounded? The chapters in this part explore in related ways the possibility that a priori justification is grounded either in intuitions or in understanding. The third part concerns the extent of a priori justification: beyond core cases like mathematical proof, what methods can yield a priori justification? The chapters in this part variously investigate to what degree and why methods like introspection, testimony, and others have import for a priori justification. Overall, the book aims at showcasing as well as pushing further some of the latest contemporary trends in thinking about these questions.

Chapters

Three Questions about the A Priori: Its Significance, Sources, and Extent

Dodd D., Zardini E., , in: The A Priori: Its Significance, Sources and Extent.: Oxford University Press, 2026. P. 1–36.

Chapter 1 first presents a particular way of understanding the problematic character of a priori justification. It then develops the three main questions around which the book is structured. The first question concerns the significance of a priori justification: the chapter explains the difficulties in articulating the crucial notion of independence from experience. The second ...

Added: August 28, 2026

The Underdetermination of the Meaning of Logical Words by Rules of Inference

Zardini E., , in: The A Priori: Its Significance, Sources and Extent.: Oxford University Press, 2026. P. 211–252.

After setting up the framework of logical inferentialism and explaining that view’s relevance for the question of a priori justification, this chapter presents and discusses ‘the underdetermination challenge’ to the view. The challenge consists in arguing that, contrary to logical inferentialism, some logical words are such that no set of formal, recursively enumerable rules of inference can pin ...

Added: August 28, 2026

Keywords: интроспекция, introspection, a priori justification, априорное обоснование