Self-Knowledge and Knowledge A Priori

How is it possible to know of one's own mental states for the most part effortlessly and authoritatively? How can we know substantive facts of logic and mathematics, applicable to the natural world, just by thinking? These basic questions concern kinds of knowledge--psychological self-knowledge and knowledge a priori--that, however different in their subject matters, both seem to exemplify a species of immediate, non-sensuous apprehension which resists assimilation to perception and, to that extent, integration within naturalistic accounts of knowledge at large.

Self-Knowledge and Knowledge A Priori shows how the philosophical challenges we face in accounting for these two kinds of (presumptive) knowledge are strikingly similar. In each case, there is an initial problem of providing a satisfactory characterization of the target phenomenon; each has provoked a sweep of sceptical reactions, as well as a variety of (unsuccessful) attempts at constructive explanatory models; in each case there is argument that knowledge (or, at least, epistemically respectable judgement) of the kind in question is indispensable to rational inquiry, deliberation, and action.

Written by seventeen leading researchers in contemporary analytic epistemology, this book builds on the Knowledge Beyond Natural Science project at the University of Stirling and fosters the dialogue between the philosophical problems of the priori and self-knowledge, while advancing novel contributions to each of the ongoing debates.

Giacomo Melis, Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of Stirling,Giovanni Merlo, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva,Crispin Wright, Professor of Philosophical Research, University of Stirling

Giacomo Melis is Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Stirling. In 2021 he was awarded a UKRI Future Leader Fellowship to lead an interdisciplinary project on rationality at the University of Stirling and the Messerli Research Institute at the University of Vienna.


Giovanni Merlo is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Geneva, where he leads a five-year SNSF Starting Grant project entitled Metaphysics We Can Believe In.


Crispin Wright is Professor of Philosophical Research at the University of Stirling. He has taught at Oxford, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Michigan, Princeton, Columbia, and New York.

1. Self-Knowledge and Knowledge A Priori: Introduction, Giovanni Merlo, Giacomo Melis, and Crispin WrightPart I. Exceptionalism2. Knowing That One Is in Pain and 'Feeling That' One Is in Pain, Lucy Campbell3. Privileged Access Without Luminosity, Giovanni Merlo4. Brute Errors and Evidential Roles, Giacomo Melis5. Understanding to the Rescue, Joshua C. Thurow6. The Knowledge Expressed by Phenomenal Avowals: A Straightforward View, Crispin WrightPart II. Scepticism7. Being Wrong About Logic, Claire Field8. The Epistemology of Essence: Three Issues, Albert Casullo9. Knowing That I Am in Pain, Alex Byrne10. Inference and Transparency: A Two Explanations Account of Self-Knowledge, Sophie KeelingPart III. Deflationism11. Knowing by Stipulation, Derek Ball12. 'I', My Self, and My Mental States, Dorit Bar-On13. Transparency Over-Extended, Annalisa Coliva and Edward MarkPart IV. New Directions14. Self-Knowledge in a Human Mind Flattened from Above, Robert D. Rupert15. Objective Justification and Factive States, Christopher Peacocke16. Is Mathematics an A Priori Science?, Marcus Giaquinto17. Mathematical Justification Without Proof, Silvia De Toffoli