By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
On the A Priori as Dynamic
1. The whole point in defining philosophy as "the fully reflective understanding of the basic existential faith which is constitutive of human existence" is to define philosophy as the reflective understanding of the a priori—construed as at once "the faith by which we live" and "the nature of reality as disclosed to that faith." In other words, the a priori is faith, and faith is the a priori.
2. The importance of using the world "faith" in this context is to make much the same point as the transcendental Thomists make in stressing "performance," or as C. I. Lewis makes in stressing the "pragmatic" character of the a priori.
4 December 1971
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