Abstract

Frank Jackson’s book brings a central metaphilosophical issue into sharp focus, and it is this general issue—the role of conceptual analysis and the thesis that it is a source of a priori knowledge—to which I will direct my comments. I have no problem with the activity that Jackson calls “conceptual analysis.” My worry is about the epistemological status claimed for this activity. I confess that I have only a dim idea of what a priori knowledge might be, but I am inclined to be skeptical about whether the conclusions of philosophical inquiry are, in any reasonable sense, knowable a priori.