By synthetic, I basically mean to synthesize or create new knowledge. It has to do with the meaning of a statement. Some statements such as "All squares have four sides." are called analytic because they are true or false just in virtue of the meaning of the words. On the other hand, a synthetic statement (e.g. It is a cloudy day.) is not true or false by virtue of the meaning of the words.
Perhaps more concisely, to say there is no synthetic a priori, is to say there is no a priori knowledge which tells us something new about the world. |