Analytic-synthetic distinction

The analytic-synthetic distinction is the thesis that there exists a principled boundary between statements that are true by virtue of meaning alone — analytic — and statements that are true by virtue of how the world is — synthetic. Kant gave the classic formulation: analytic judgments are those in which the predicate is contained in the subject ('all bachelors are unmarried'); synthetic judgments add something not contained in the subject ('some bachelors are unhappy').

The distinction grounded logical positivism: analytic truths provide the framework of meaning; synthetic truths are the empirical content. Quine's Two Dogmas of Empiricism (1951) challenged the distinction by arguing that no non-circular criterion of analyticity has ever been given. The notion of 'synonymy' presupposes analyticity, and analyticity presupposes synonymy. The circle is vicious.

If the distinction collapses, then no statement is immune to revision in the face of experience — not even the laws of logic. The consequence is meaning holism: the unit of empirical significance is the whole of science, not individual statements. Whether the distinction can be rehabilitated remains one of the central disputes in philosophy of language and epistemology.