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6 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Analytic
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An analytic truth is one that is true in virtue of the meaning of the words. I.e. it is true by defenition. One example of this is"All bachelors are unmarried men". The truth of a bechlor being an unmarried man is one of fact in virtue of the meaning of the words of the sentance, i.e. unmarried,bachelor, etc..
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Synthetic
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A synthetic truth is a truth that is not true in virtue of the meaning of the words. I.e. it is not true by defenition. One example of this is "The sun is approximately 93 million miles away from the Earth". The fact that the sun is almost 93 million miles away is one that is only known by experiencing the suns distance from the Earth. You cannot know this fact is true just by looking at the defenitions of the words.
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A-priori
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An a-priori truth is a truth that does not require any experience for it to be truth, "from what is before" truth. An example of an a -priori proposition is "I think, therefore I exist". This famous statement by Rene Descartes shows to us that we exist, purely because we know we exist. There is no sense experience data that is needed in order to know this.
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A-posteriori
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An a-posteriori truth is truth that requires sense experience in order to be true, "from what comes after" truth. One example of this is "Wood floors are usually brown." You can know by observing many wood floors, and the colour brown, that most wood floors are brown. You cannot know that this is true without experiencing.
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Necessary
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A necessary truth is a truth that would prove contradictory if it were negated, i.e. proved wrong. This necessary truth is true in "every possible world" (Leibniz). One example of this would be "All bachelors are unmarried men.". Because the defenition of a bachelor is to be an unmarried man it would stand in all poisslbe worlds that any unmarried men would be bachelors.
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Contingent
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A contingent truth is a truth that would not prove contradictory of negated, i.e. proved wrong. A contingent truth is not true in all possible worlds. One example of this would be "The sun is 93 million miles from the Earth". In an alternate universe the sun might be 94 million miles away from the Earth.
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