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Why did John Stuart Mill argue that a priori certainties are based on repeated experience?
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Epistemology
The refraction (bending) of light as it passes from air into water causes an optical illusion: straws in the glass of water appear broken or bent at the water's surface.
John Stuart Mill, a prominent 19th-century empiricist, argued that what are often perceived as a priori certainties—such as the truths of mathematics—are actually empirical in nature.1
Contrary to the view that these truths are independent of experience, Mill maintained that their apparent necessity and aprioricity arise from the unique massiveness of their empirical confirmation. In his view, these beliefs are the result of repeated, consistent experience, which provides such overwhelming evidence that they appear necessary to the human mind. Consequently, Mill held that all genuine knowledge is inductive and empirical, viewing deduction as essentially sterile.1