Do you believe synthetic a priori knowledge exists? Why or why not?

Well I think this question touches on what has been a demonstrably unresolvable question. Even as Kant’s initial analytic–synthetic dichotomy has morphed over time - sometimes into divergent subsets, sometimes entirely contested or negated - our fundamental query just scurries deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. So even as I explain my position, it’s going to become obvious that my position is - like all others in this arena IMO - essentially indefensible. Be that as it may, here is my own multidialectical approach to the question, which is necessarily grounded in ALL of the following statements sharing the same neutral holding space:

1. Nearly all experience is abstracted/mediated by perception-cognition, which is in turn conditioned and constrained by conceptual enculturation and language…unless and until these contexts are stripped away and noumenon can be apprehended directly.

2. Nondiscursive and non-sensible insight can be both intuited and reasoned out, while either remaining entirely aloof from experiential validation and sensory perceptions, or even held in contradiction to them.

3. Peak experiences of gnosis — as a consequence of the disciplined stripping-away of reflexive knowledge and sensorial reactivity — can likewise introduce entirely new “ahas” that are not linguistically or conceptually anchored or contextualized, but nevertheless can be experientially validated.

4. The semantic containers of reason are infinitely maleable, so that the same information can have entirely different meanings…without end.

5. Emotional, spiritual, somatic, experiential and analytical contributions to rational extrapolations are all equally necessary, valid and in fact interdependent.

6. Both a priori and a posteriori assertions or propositions can be false, incomplete, or subject to revision — in other words, both can be inaccurate or unreliable.

Therefore, synthetic a priori knowledge exists…but we cannot be certain if it exists or operates independently of these factors, faculties and conditions; is a consequence of their multidialectical synthesis; is a hallmark of the creativity of consciousness — or an indication of a collective unconscious; or is a gift from the gods. We can, however, apprehend it via intellectual intuition…which is of course something that Kant (rather ironically?) rejected, while other philosophers did not.

My 2 cents.

From Quora: https://www.quora.com/Do-you-believe-synthetic-a-priori-knowledge-exists-Why-or-why-not/answer/T-Collins-Logan

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