Alice di Noto

March 1 - June 30, 2026

Affiliation: University of Trentino

Research for a study about:

The A Priori in Arthur Pap's Philosophy of Science

Lecture

The Notion of "Functional A Priori" in Arthur Pap's Philosophy of Science

IVC Philosophy of Science Colloquium 

Date: April 16, 2026

Time: 4.45 pm -6.15 pm CET

Venue for all talks: Lecture Hall 3C, NIG Universitätsstraße 7, 3rd floor, NIG/ Neues Institutsgebäude, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna

Abstract:

In this talk, I will present Arthur Pap’s contribution to debates about the nature and function of the a priori in scientific knowledge. Arthur Pap was a Swiss philosopher of science of Jewish origin who lived between 1921 and 1959. Like many other European philosophers at that time, he was forced to move to the United States to escape Nazi persecution. There, a multifaceted philosophical environment was emerging, thanks to the interactions between European philosophers of science who had emigrated and their American colleagues. It was in this context that Pap, influenced by logical empiricism, neo-Kantianism, conventionalism, and American pragmatism, developed his functional interpretation of the a priori.
I will outline Pap’s criticism of the rigid dichotomy between analytic a priori and synthetic a posteriori judgments, as postulated by logical empiricists, and his dynamic point of view, in which scientific propositions can change their function and epistemological status at different stages of enquiry. Pap describes a “path towards analyticity”, whereby certain synthetic a posteriori empirical laws that have been extensively confirmed by experience may, at a later stage of research, be “held fast”, so to speak, irrespective of any further empirical verification, and begin to function as principles that guide the interpretation of certain classes of phenomena. The more these laws are confirmed by experience, and the more effective they are in interpreting subsequent experience, the closer they will come to a priori status. They will eventually be used to define the very empirical concepts they encompass, thus becoming formally analytic. I will show how, in Pap’s perspective, these statements can function as a leading principles for subsequent research and explain their constructive role also. Then, I will explain their relationship with experience and with the other kinds of a priori identified by Pap: the “material” and the “formal” a priori. Finally, I will compare Pap's thesis with other, better-known 20th-century theories of the relativised and dynamic a priori.

Report

During my three-month fellowship at the Institut Wiener Kreis, I had the opportunity to consult important materials for my research on Arthur Pap’s functional theory of the a priori. Professors Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau and Friedrich Stadler gave me access to the Arthur Pap Archive and guided me in my search of its documents. Thanks to their help and that of Zarah Weiss, I was able to scan and study the first, unpublished version of Pap's dissertation On the a priori, The A Priori in Physical Theory. I am now working on a comparison of the two versions of the book for an article. I also had the opportunity to scan a large number of other typescripts by Pap that are closely related to this topic. These will be crucial for the central, more theoretical part of my PhD dissertation. Professor Limbeck-Lilienau was also always available to discuss my work in progress and provide other valuable bibliographical recommendations.

Another important aspect of my experience at the Institut Wiener Kreis was the opportunity to meet some members of the HOPOS research community (the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science) in person, especially at the S.K. Langer conference organised by Lona Gaikis (26–29 May 2026). This provided an important opportunity to discuss my work with them and gain new insights.

Initiatives such as the IVC’s Colloquium, the History of Philosophy of Science Colloquium, and the IVC’s reading group were also very helpful in improving my understanding of different topics in analytic philosophy.
I believe that the environment at the Institut Wiener Kreis is ideal for fostering a sense of community and shared knowledge, as well as facilitating high-level, cooperative work. Thanks to Sabine Koch's initiative, we also had the opportunity to bond over a trip to the vineyards, which further strengthened our sense of being a research community.