In Defense of Pure Reason
A Rationalist Account of A Priori Justification

A comprehensive defence of the rationalist view that insight independent of experience is a genuine basis for knowledge.

Laurence BonJour (Author)

9780521592369, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 1998

248 pages
22.2 x 14.4 x 2.3 cm, 0.415 kg

'Although he has been thinking and writing about these issues for many years, the publication of his book is a part of a widespread resurgence of interest in rationalist ideas, from the foundations of logic, through epistemology to moral philosophy, and anyone interested in either the rationalism or the resurgence will need to read In Defense of Pure Reason.' The Times Literary Supplement

This book is concerned with the alleged capacity of the human mind to arrive at beliefs and knowledge about the world on the basis of pure reason without any dependence on sensory experience. Most recent philosophers reject the view and argue that all substantive knowledge must be sensory in origin. Laurence BonJour provocatively reopens the debate by presenting the most comprehensive exposition and defence of the rationalist view that a priori insight is a genuine basis for knowledge. This important book will be at the centre of debate about the theory of knowledge for many years to come.

1. Introduction: the problem of a priori justification
2. In search of moderate empiricism
3. Quine and radical empiricism
4. A moderate rationalism
5. Epistemological objections to rationalism
6. Metaphysical objections to rationalism
7. The justification of induction
Appendix: non-Euclidean geometry and relativity.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of mind [HPM]