The Contingent A Priori: Much Ado about Nothing
The Contingent A Priori: Much Ado about Nothing

Summary/Abstract: Since Saul Kripke’s Naming and Necessity, the view that there are contingent a priori truths has been surprisingly widespread. In this paper, I argue against that view. My first point is that in general, occurrences of predicates “a priori” and “contingent” are implicitly relativized to some circumstance, involving an agent, a time, a location. My second point is that apriority and necessity coincide when relativized to the same circumstance. That is to say, what is known a priori (by an agent in a circumstance) cannot fail to be the case (in the same circumstance), hence it is necessary.

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