ABSTRACT

A distinction that is common in philosophy is that between a priori and empirical knowledge. This distinction relates to whether the knowledge in question was gained independently of an investigation of the world through experience. An important variety of a priori knowledge is gained by introspection. A belief is a priori justified if that justification was gained independently of a worldly investigation. Most of philosophers’ knowledge makes use of further knowledge which is both empirical and a priori. Despite the apparent differences between abductive and normal inductive inferences, abductive inferences always seem to make implicit use of further information or regulative principles which are inductively grounded. The inference in the case leads to empirical knowledge, it also makes use of a priori knowledge as well.