Analytical propositions, according to this dichotomy, do not depend on experience. As seen in the last century, they are also independent of reality and simply reflect arbitrary conventions. Synthetic propositions reflect experience, but with a "Catch 22": since they are only "contingent," there is no "logical necessity" about synthetic propositions. If I observe the sun rising today, I can conclude only that the sun rose today. There is no logical basis for me to infer from repeated such observations that it will rise tomorrow, or even that it will "probably" do so. After all, it is only by arbitrary convention that I even designate all such sightings by the same concept sunrise. In summary, no attempt by humans to think abstractly, to move beyond the immediate perceptual consciousness that they share with lower animals, can extend their knowledge of reality.

The epistemological approach followed here, of course, rejects the analytic/synthetic dichotomy as nonsense. Not only sunrise, but also more abstract concepts such as life, the good, justice, and freedom (which will all be developed in this course) are rooted in fundamental similarities and differences of kind in reality. Only a person who has failed to grasp this conceptual process could misconstrue thinking based on such properly formed concepts as a succession of "tautologies."