Analytic–synthetic distinction

The contrast between statements true by meaning alone and statements whose truth also depends on how the world is.

Also: analytic-synthetic distinction, analytic truth, synthetic truth, analyticity

What it means

An analytic statement is true, in the words of the Stanford Encyclopedia, "by virtue of the meanings of their words alone": 'all paediatricians are doctors' is an example. A synthetic statement, such as 'all paediatricians are rich', depends on facts as well. Kant described analytic judgements as those whose predicate is already contained in the subject, and held that some synthetic truths, like 7 + 5 = 12, are knowable a priori. Locke and Hume had earlier spoken of 'relations of ideas', a forerunner of the analytic. Carnap and the logical positivists tried to use analyticity to explain a priori knowledge, but Quine's 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' argued that no clear line can be drawn at all.

The questions it belongs to

• 6.10 Philosophy of LanguageHow do noises come to be about things?
• 2.2.2 Reason and IntuitionHow, if at all, do you know that a surface cannot be wholly red and wholly green at the same time and in the same respect?

Thinkers

• Immanuel Kant
• David Hume
• Gottlob Frege
• Rudolf Carnap
• W. V. O. Quine

Traditions

• Modern European
• Analytic

To read

• A Treatise of Human Nature — David Hume
• An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? — Immanuel Kant
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding — David Hume

Sources and further reading

• The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• A Priori Justification and Knowledge (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Written by the Coordinates of Thought editors and checked against the sources above on 29 October 2026. Not peer-reviewed. How we write and check.

All terms in the glossary