UNDERSTANDING, JUSTIFICATION AND THE A PRIORI

Abstract

What I wish to consider here is how understanding something is related to the justification of beliefs about what it means. Suppose, for instance, that S understands the name “Clinton” and has a justified belief that it names Clinton. How is S’s understanding related to that belief’s justification? Or suppose that S understands the sentence “Clinton is President”, or Jones’ assertive utterance of it, and has a justified belief that that sentence expresses the proposition that Clinton is President, or that Jones said that Clinton is President. How is S’s understanding related to the justifications of these beliefs? My aim is to explore the following claim. (T) Understanding is an a priori source of immediate prima facie justification for beliefs about what things mean. If knowledge is justified true belief, then, according to (T), true beliefs so justified constitute a priori knowledge. I believe this claim promises to throw interesting new light on the epistemic character and potential of Mind. In order to assess whether (T) is even remotely plausible, several preliminary clarifications are in order. I will begin with some observations about understanding, and then proceed to a discussion of justification. I will conclude with a discussion of a priori justification.