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IS GEOMETRY ANALYTIC?
MGHANGA DAVID MWAKIMA

1. INTRODUCTION
In the fourth chapter of Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer undertakes the task of 
showing how a priori knowledge of mathematics and logic is possible. In doing so, 
he argues that only if we understand mathematics and logic as analytic,1 by which 
he memorably meant “devoid of factual content”2, do we have a justified account of 
a priori knowledge of these disciplines.3 In this chapter, it is not clear whether Ayer 
gives an argument per se for the analyticity of mathematics and logic. For when one 
reads that chapter, one sees that Ayer is mainly criticizing the views held by Kant and 
Mill with respect to arithmetic.4 Nevertheless, I believe that the positive argument is 
present. Ayer’s discussion of geometry5 in this chapter shows that it is this discussion 
which constitutes his positive argument for the thesis that analytic sentences are true 

1 Now, I am aware that ‘analytic’ was understood differently by Kant, Carnap, Ayer, Quine, and Putnam. It is 
not even clear whether there is even an agreed definition of ‘analytic’ today. For the purposes of my paper, the 
meaning of ‘analytic’ is Carnap’s sense as described in: Michael, Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism (New 
York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), in terms of the relativized a priori.

2 Alfred Jules, Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (New York: Dover Publications, 1952), p. 79, 87. In these sections 
of the book, I think the reason Ayer chose to characterize analytic statements as “devoid of factual” content is in 
order to give an account of why analytic statements could not be shown to be false on the basis of observation. 
In other words, the reason why the analytic statements were necessary truths, according to Ayer, is that they did 
not assert that which required further facts or observation in order to establish their truth. One just needed to know 
the “meanings” or definitions of the terms in those statements in order to “see” that they are true independent 
of further observation or empirical data. For example, it is a fact that ‘Euclidean triangle’ refers to a planar 
three-sided figure. And it is a fact that every Euclidean triangle has angles adding up to 180 degrees. But given 
these facts, it follows that every planar three-sided figure has angles adding up to 180 degrees without need of 
any further observation. So, ‘every planar three-sided figure has angles adding up to 180 degrees,’ is an analytic 
statement in Ayer’s sense of ‘analytic’.

3 Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 73.
4 Kant believed arithmetic is synthetic a priori while Mill believed that we arrive at mathematical beliefs on the 

basis of scientific induction. See Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 74 – 75; 77 – 78.
5 Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 82.



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Is Geometry Analytic

in virtue of the definitions of the terms in them and are thus “devoid of factual 
content”. 

What follows is a summary of the argument that Ayer makes in his discussion of 
geometry. Suppose, as Kant believed in his Critique of Pure Reason, that Euclidean 
geometry is synthetic a priori. On the one hand, Euclidean geometry is synthetic 
because one could not, by conceptual analysis alone, arrive at the truths of Euclidean 
geometry. Moreover, since geometry is synthetic, unlike analytic judgments (which, 
according to Kant, do not amplify [or increase] our knowledge), geometry does indeed 
increase our knowledge. On the other hand, Euclidean geometry is a priori, for it is 
grounded in our a priori idea of space, which, for Kant, was the pure form of sensible 
intuition. The idea of space itself is a priori (in the transcendental sense) insofar as it 
is only if we have that idea, due to the unfathomable constitution of our mind, is any 
experience possible. But, since Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, other consistent (and 
practically useful) non-Euclidean geometries6 have been developed. Thus, it cannot 
be the case that Euclidean geometry is synthetic a priori in Kant’s sense or that its a 
priori status is due to the constitution of our mind. “We see now,” Ayer says, “that 
the axioms of a geometry are simply definitions, and that the theorems of a geometry 
are simply the logical consequences of these definitions. A geometry is not in itself 
about physical space; in itself it cannot be said to be “about” anything. But we can 
use a geometry to reason about physical space.”7 

Fast-forward about 30 years later to Hilary Putnam. In a chapter entitled “Analytic and 
Synthetic,” in his book Mind, Language and Reality, Putnam, (somewhat) following 
Quine,8 argues that principles of geometry are not analytic if the paradigmatic 
analytic sentence is ‘all bachelors are unmarried’. Apart from the separate reasons, of 
which I shall not speak here, that Putnam gives for the analyticity of ‘all bachelors 
are unmarried,’ there are other reasons that he uses to argue that principles of 
geometry are not analytic. First of all, he rejects the “linguistic convention” account 
of analyticity that some philosophers were using to argue that the principles of 
geometry, like physical definitions (e.g., e=1/2 mv^2), are true by (linguistic) 
convention or stipulation, and hence analytic.9 Putnam argues that these definitions 
introduced by stipulation lose their conventional character and acquire systematic 
import within our conceptual system in such a way that it would be a mistake to 
construe them as analytic if analyticity is understood to mean ‘true by linguistic 
convention or stipulation.’10 Secondly (and this is where Putnam’s acceptance 
Duhemian and Quinean holism11 is very evident), mathematics and principles of 

6 For example, Einstein used a non-Euclidean geometry to describe space-time in his formulation of the general 
theory of relativity.

7 Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 82.
8 Cf. Hilary, Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic” printed in Mind, Language, and Reality (Hilary, Putnam 

Philosophical papers Vol. 2) (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975) p. 40.
9 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, pp. 36, 38ff.
10 Ibid.
11 See Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism p. 70 for further discussion of Duhemian and Quinean holism.



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geometry are characterized by their centrality, as framework principles, within our 
web of beliefs – revisable but only after holistic considerations. Thus, principles of 
Euclidean geometry, once thought to be analytic (in the sense of ‘immune from 
revision’), were abandoned because a rival theory was available.12 

What is intriguing, especially in light of Ayer’s argument, is Putnam’s conclusion that 
Euclidean geometry is false (my emphasis): 

If the paradigm for an analytic sentence is “all bachelors are unmarried” - 
and it is - then it is of course absurd to say that the principles of geometry 
are analytic. Indeed we cannot any longer say that the principles of 
geometry are analytic; because analytic sentences are true; and we no longer 
say that principles of Euclidean geometry are true.13 

In this paper, I will attempt to answer the question: is geometry analytic and in what 
sense? In doing so, I will begin by critically evaluating Ayer and Putnam’s arguments 
on the analyticity (or lack thereof ) of geometry on the basis of historico-philosophical 
work on the foundations of geometry by Roberto Torretti in Philosophy of Geometry 
from Riemann to Poincaré and Michael Friedman in Reconsidering Logical Positivism. 
My critical evaluations of Ayer and Putnam will show that in their arguments against 
Kant and Linguistic Conventionalism respectively, they fail to distinguish clearly 
between what Einstein called “pure axiomatic geometry” and “practical geometry.”14 
On the one hand, I will show that Ayer fails to notice that Kant could have been 
talking about ‘pure geometry,’ and not ‘applied geometry,’ when Kant argued that 
geometry is synthetic a priori. On the other hand, I will show that Putnam fails to 
distinguish between applied Euclidean geometry and pure Euclidean geometry in 
the quoted passage. After my critical evaluations of Ayer and Putnam’s arguments, 
I will conclude by suggesting how someone could plausibly think that applied 
Euclidean geometry is analytic in Carnap’s sense. I will be drawing from Friedman’s 
Reconsidering Logical Positivism in my presentation of Carnap’s sense of ‘analytic.’ 
Friedman argues in that book that Carnap can accept Duhemian holism while still 
rejecting Quinean holism. “To obtain Quinean holism,” Friedman says, “we must 
exhibit the incoherence of Carnap’s Logical Syntax program, and only this, I suggest, 
demonstrates the ultimate failure of the logical positivists’ version of the relativized a 
priori [my emphasis].”15 

12 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, pp. 47ff.
13 Ibid.
14 See Albert, Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity (New York: Dover, 1983), p. 32. I thank Peter Koellner for suggesting 

this approach to my paper. I think ‘pure geometry’ is a better term than ‘pure axiomatic geometry.’ Pure 
axiomatic geometry implies that all the pure geometries are approached axiomatically which is not necessarily 
the case. Also, ‘applied geometry’ sounds more accurate than ‘practical geometry’; for it suggests that what we are 
talking about is pure geometry as it is applied to the study of physical space or in physics, e.g., in optics. In this 
paper, I may sometimes use the terms ‘physical geometry’ and ‘applied geometry’ interchangeably. 

15 Cf. Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 70



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2. PURE GEOMETRY AND APPLIED GEOMETRY
On the one hand, what I choose to call ‘pure geometry’ is geometry studied as a 
branch of pure mathematics. Specifically, I take pure geometry to include classical 
Euclidean geometry as say: that which was pursued in Classical Antiquity and through 
the Middle Ages in Euclid’s Elements; the analytical coordinate geometry invented 
by René Descartes in the 17th century, the non-Euclidean geometries 16developed 
independently by Bolyai and Lobachevsky in the 1820s; Gauss’s intrinsic geometry of 
surfaces in his Disquisitions of 1827, which, together with the earlier non-Euclidean 
geometries of Bolyai and Lobachevsky influenced Riemann in his 1854 lecture: On 
the Hypotheses that Lie at the Foundations of Geometry to come up with a generalized 
conception of space as a n-fold extended quantity i.e. an n-dimensional differentiable 
manifold – a conception which could accommodate both the Euclidean and non-
Euclidean geometries. I would also include under pure geometry, the work of Felix 
Klein and Sophus Lie on transformation groups; projective geometry, which was 
axiomatized by Moritz Pasch in 1882; and the axiomatic conception of Euclidean 
geometry and both Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry found in David Hilbert’s 
1899 Foundations of Geometry and 1902 article “On The Foundations of Geometry” 
respectively.17 Topology can also be classed within the study of pure geometry. Pure 
geometry is a priori in both senses of the term: “known independent of experience” 
and “[demonstrated] from the grounds.”18 But as we shall subsequently see in this 
paper, saying why pure geometry is a priori generates a lot of controversy.

On the other hand, what I call ‘applied geometry’ is geometry in the literal sense 
of the term, i.e., “earth measuring.”19 Applied geometry arises whenever the formal 
terms in pure geometry receive a physical interpretation i.e. when their designata are 
specified for use in the exact sciences like physics. In classical mechanics, for example, 
Euclidean geometry was used in kinematics by “building bridge equations”20 from 
pure Euclidean geometry to physics. These ‘bridge equations’ are such as those that 
grew out of Descartes’s analytic geometry, where he introduced coordinate systems 
and algebra to geometry (e.g., the equation of a straight line [ax + by + c = 0]), which 
found fruitful application in analysis and subsequently in kinematics. I think that 

16 Cf. Roberto, Torretti, Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré (Dordrecht-Holland; Boston: D. Reidel 
Pub., 1978) Chapter 1 and 2 and 3. See Torretti, Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré, p. 185 for 
Hilbert’s works.

17 Torretti also points out the work of Levi-Cività in the geometric meaning of curvature and that of Weyl with the 
idea of an affine structure. So, we may include their contributions as contributions to pure geometry.

18 The “from the grounds” sense of the a priori comes from the theory of demonstration. In Peter Koellner’s seminar 
class: Topics in the Philosophy of Mathematics: The Concept of Apriority (Philosophy 243, Fall 2015), for which 
I wrote this paper, Koellner had shown that ‘a priori’ did not always mean what it means today, i.e., “known 
independent of experience”. ‘A priori [demonstration]’ was used earlier by William of Ockham (ca. 13 Century) 
when he distinguishes: (1) Demonstration from what is prior, i.e., why it is so from explanatory grounds; from 
(2) Demonstration from what is posterior, i.e., that it is so. He cited Ockham’s Summa Logicae Part III Tractate 
II Chapter 17. This sense of ‘a priori’, Peter argued in seminar, can serve to illuminate certain accounts of 
justifications in mathematics.

19  See Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity, p. 31
20  This is a term that Peter Koellner explicitly in his presentation during this seminar class. Since I was submitting 

this paper for that class, I wanted to acknowledge that it is not my own.



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physical geometry in classical mechanics was still a priori, for I do not think that 
‘straight line’ had received a physical interpretation in optics. However, in General 
Relativity, the apriority of physical geometry gets lost as physical geometry becomes 
entangled with the physical structure of the universe, especially with the distribution 
of mass and energy in the universe. For in General Relativity, the metric of the 
underlying topology of space-time depends on the distribution of mass-energy across 
the universe.21 Specifically, if a geodesic (which is the non-Euclidean equivalent of the 
straight line in Euclidean geometry) in a 4-dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold 
of non-constant curvature is interpreted as the path of an unimpeded beam of light, 
then the physical structure of the universe is such that two unimpeded parallel beams 
of light can converge globally (if not locally or infinitesimally) as they go past a star.22 

3. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF AYER
Armed with this distinction between pure geometry and applied geometry, I would 
now like to engage in critical evaluation of Ayer’s argument in the fourth chapter of 
Language Truth and Logic. One way of critically evaluating Ayer’s argument is to ask 
whether the argument works in refuting Kant’s epistemology of geometry as Ayer 
intended. With respect to this aspect of critical evaluation, the first point I want to 
make is that Ayer is correct in saying that “a geometry is not in itself about physical 
space:23 in itself it cannot be said to be “about” anything.” He is correct insofar as he 
is talking about pure geometry as I have distinguished it above; however, I do not 
believe that this particular argument succeeds in refuting Kant’s thesis that geometry 
is synthetic a priori. 

First, for Kant, the ‘synthetic’ had a primary sense and a secondary sense. The primary 
sense of ‘synthetic’ is well known. It is roughly the idea that a judgment is synthetic 
whenever the predicate ‘B’ of a judgment is not contained (covertly) in the subject 
‘A’ of the judgment. So, one can think of ‘A’ without necessarily thinking of ‘B.’ Or, 
put another way, mere conceptual analysis does not reveal that the predicate ‘B’ was 
contained in subject ‘A’ all along. The secondary sense of the synthetic is that while 
analytic judgments are explicative, which means that they reveal the concepts already 
contained in the subject albeit confusedly or less clearly; synthetic judgments are 
ampliative, which means that synthetic judgments extend our knowledge.24 

Secondly, the ‘a priori’ also had two distinct senses for Kant. Firstly, whatever was a 
priori was both necessary and had universal validity. Secondly, whatever was a priori 
was so in a transcendental sense, meaning that it arose out of the unfathomable 
constitution of our mind insofar as it made experience possible. The implication 
21 Cf. Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 62.
22 I thank Peter Koellner for fruitful discussion of these points as I was writing this paper in Fall 2015.
23 Cf. Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 46f for the distinctions that Carnap drew between formal, 

intuitive and physical space.
24 Cf. Immanuel, Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Smith Norman K., Trans.) (China: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) 

(2nd edition: Original work published in German 1787) Introduction Part IV p. 48f.



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here being that whatever makes experience possible cannot itself be known through 
experience.25 

On the basis of these clarifications, I want to argue that Ayer’s argument that seeks 
to refute Kant’s epistemology of geometry in terms of geometry not being “about” 
anything, does not succeed. To see why, recall that for Ayer a proposition has factual 
content if and only if it “provides information about matters of fact.”26 Elsewhere, 
he says that propositions that have factual content are empirical hypotheses.27 So, 
when Ayer says (emphasis mine), “[It] is natural for us to think, as Kant thought, 
that geometry is the study of the properties of physical space, and consequently that 
its propositions have factual content,” I am at a loss as to why. There is no evidence in 
Kant’s Critique to suggest that Kant’s view of geometry was such that the propositions 
of geometry expressed empirical hypotheses. In fact, Kant is very clear:

Geometrical propositions are one and all apodeitic…such propositions 
cannot be empirical or, in other words, judgments of experience, nor can 
they be derived from any such judgments.28

It may be objected that in the context of the quoted passage Kant says that, “geometry 
is a science which determines the properties of space synthetically, and yet a priori.” 
This objection may be put forward to suggest that the term ‘science’ and the clause 
‘determines the properties of space synthetically’ together imply that, for Kant, 
geometry is empirical and that it is about something (that it has factual content and 
that this content is physical space). Couldn’t this, after all, be what Ayer is objecting 
to? My response is yes: Ayer is objecting to this view. However, Ayer’s objection 
does not work for the following reasons. First, the quotation from Kant does not 
establish that the propositions of geometry are empirical hypotheses. That geometry 
is a ‘science’ could just mean that it is a systematically organized body of knowledge, 
which is just what a science means. Pure mathematics is also sometimes viewed as a 
science in the sense of being a systematically organized body of knowledge. Secondly, 
the quoted passage does not imply that the space in question is actual physical space. 
In fact, that the passage does not imply physical space is strongly suggested by the 
fact that part of what Kant has in mind throughout the Transcendental Aesthetic is 
arriving at our idea of space. This idea of space – as a form of our sensible intuition 
– is a priori in the transcendental sense. So, if geometry is about this a priori idea, 
then it cannot be the case that in the quoted passage the space in question is physical 
space. Lastly, ‘synthetically,’ for Kant, does not mean that synthetic judgments are 
known by experience; for, after all, there are synthetic a priori judgments. The right 

25 Cf. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Smith Norman K., Trans.) Introduction Part II p. 43f and p. 70f and 
Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 7.

26 Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 79
27 Ibid., p. 15 - 17.
28  Cf. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Smith Norman K., Trans.) p. 70 



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way of interpreting ‘synthetically’ is in the primary and secondary senses of synthetic 
judgments that I have described above.29 

What the foregoing aspect of critical evaluation shows is that one cannot explain away 
Ayer’s overthrow of Kant’s epistemology of geometry by saying that Ayer is talking 
about pure geometry while Kant is talking about applied geometry. The passages from 
Kant I have quoted above strongly suggest that Kant possibly had pure geometry in 
mind. The way that Ayer’s argument does succeed is in challenging the grounds of the 
apriority of geometry. While Kant grounds the apriority of geometrical propositions 
on the a priori idea of space that arises as a result of the constitution of our mind, Ayer 
believes that a geometry is a priori because it is analytic (though not in Kant’s sense 
of the term). Moreover, since Kant’s time, there have been other consistent theories 
of pure geometry other than the classical Euclidean one that was the only one known 
to him. For within these geometrical theories, the theorems are logical consequences 
of the axioms and so these theories are all a priori because they are analytic. It is on 
this basis that Ayer is able to endorse the conventionalism of Poincaré in the quoted 
passage: roughly, that the idea that the choice of a pure geometry to be applied 
in physical theory is a matter of convention based on expediency and the overall 
fruitfulness and simplicity of working with the said geometry.30 

The conventionalism of Poincaré will be better appreciated in the context of 
critical evaluation of Putnam’s essay. In that essay, Putnam targets the linguistic 
conventionalism. Although some logical positivists (especially Moritz Schlick) were 
inspired by Poincaré’s conventionalism, the linguistic conventionalism advocated 
by Carnap is unique and has important differences from the conventionalism of 
Poincaré.

4. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PUTNAM
4.1 WHY WAS EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY ABANDONED?

I begin my critical evaluation of Putnam’s essay by looking at where Putnam says 
that the laws of geometry were abandoned because there was a rival theory.31 Here 
we make use of our distinction between pure geometry and applied geometry. While 
it is true to say that when Euclidean geometry is applied to our physical space, it 
turns out to be incorrect; it does not follow that pure Euclidean geometry itself 
is false and that it was abandoned. Viewed historico-philosophically, what actually 
happened is that geometers doubted that Postulate 5 was self-evident, and hence 
they doubted that it ought to be included with the rest of Euclid’s axioms. Torretti 
points out that mathematicians like Proclus, John Wallis, Girolamo Saccheri, John 
Heinrich Lambert and Adrien Legendre made attempts to prove Postulate 5 from the 

29 Cf. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Smith Norman K., Trans.) p. 53.
30 Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. 83.
31 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, pp. 46, 48.



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other axioms.32 Although Gauss thought that there were no mathematical reasons 
for preferring Euclidean geometry to the non-Euclidean one,33 it was in the 1820s 
that Bolyai and Lobachevsky, working independently of each other, developed non-
Euclidean geometry, which was constructed by denying postulate 5 and using the 
rest of Euclid’s axioms that do not depend on Postulate 5. 34Lobachevsky indeed did 
not view his system as contrary to Euclidean geometry. He viewed both systems as 
equally consistent.35 Then Riemann, by building on Gauss’s work on the intrinsic 
geometry of surfaces, produced a generalized geometry capable of accommodating 
both the Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries – Euclidean space is a special case 
of the genus of the manifold.36 

Moreover, where Putnam says, “before the development of non-Euclidean geometry 
by Riemann and Lobachevski, the best philosophic minds regarded the principles 
of geometry as virtually analytic. The human mind could not conceive their falsity.” 
Putnam’s remarks need to be corrected in light of what actually happened historico-
philosophically. If, by the best philosophic minds he counts Kant, then Kant did not 
regard the principles of geometry as analytic. For Kant, principles of geometry were 
synthetic a priori. It is important to distinguish analyticity from apriority. Analyticity 
is one way of explaining the apriority of mathematics and geometry. In fact, given 
my discussion in section 3 above, Kant’s epistemology of geometry is compatible 
with the existence of non-Euclidean geometries. Friedman points out that the only 
difference between Poincaré and Kant is that the former was familiar with non-
Euclidean geometry, while the latter was not.37 

4.2 THE RATIONALE OF  
THE ANALYTIC-SYNTHETIC DISTINCTION

A second way we may critically evaluate Putnam’s argument is with the preliminary 
remarks leading up to his discussion of the analyticity (or lack thereof ) of principles 
of geometry. One such remark he makes is intended to defend the Quinean insight 
that he thinks is underappreciated by the philosophers who undertake to challenge 
Quine’s views. Putnam thinks that citing garden-variety examples of analyticity will 
not do as a reply to Quine. Instead, he insists that what is needed is a definition of 
the nature and rationale of the analytic-synthetic distinction: “what point is there to 
having a separate class of statements called analytic statements?”38 So thus, we may 
begin our critical evaluation of Putnam’s view here, by responding to this question 
historico-philosophically.

32 Torretti, Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré, pp. 43, 44, 50.
33 Ibid., p. 53.
34 Ibid., p. 40.
35 Ibid,, p. 66.
36 Torretti, Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré, p. 101.
37 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 83.
38 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, p. 35



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On the one hand, I believe that the nature and rationale of the analytic-synthetic 
distinction lie in the fact that the logical positivists in general, and Carnap in 
particular, wanted to respond to the Kantian problem: how is pure mathematics 
possible?39 In doing so, they also wanted to avoid the Kantian synthetic a priori 
doctrine of the transcendental aesthetic.40 Since Putnam directs some of his criticisms 
of the analyticity of geometry towards Reichenbach,41 whose conventionalism, he 
says, grew out of the Viennese circle, seeing what Reichenbach actually thought at 
one time in his career will serve us well as we seek to understand the nature and 
rationale of the analytic-synthetic distinction. 

4.3 THE RELATIVIZED A PRIORI

As Friedman points out, Reichenbach had a unique conception of the relationship 
between the a priori and empirical science that was neither strictly Kantian nor 
radically empiricist.42 Friedman argues in his 1920 book, General Relativity and A 
Priori Knowledge, that Reichenbach distinguished between axioms of coordination and 
axioms of connection.43 On the one hand, the axioms of coordination preserved part 
of the Kantian sense of the a priori, namely that they make science, through the 
physical theory, possible. He held that whatever the axioms of coordination were, 
they were a priori relative to the scientific theory that was employing them. Friedman 
notes that, for Reichenbach, “these nonempirical axioms of coordination – which 
include, paradigmatically, the principles of physical geometry – are ‘constitutive of 
the object of knowledge.’”44 Axioms of connection, on the other hand, are scientific 
inductive generalizations. What is important to note, according to Friedman, is 
that for Reichenbach, the axioms of coordination, relative to a given scientific theory 
(Newtonian Mechanics, Special Relativity, or General Relativity), are a priori and, 
as such, are not subject to any empirical confirmation or disconfirmation. But 
whichever axioms of coordination are in fact used depends on the scientific theory. 
So, the axioms of coordination could, in principle, be revised as a result of scientific 
advances, e.g., physical Euclidean geometry is a priori in classical mechanics but is 
not a priori in General Relativity, where “topology (sufficient to admit a Riemannian 
structure)” is instead a priori.45 This is the relativized a priori – the idea that relative 
to a scientific theory, a geometry, for example, is a priori.

Friedman notes that Schlick, in an exchange of letters, rebuked Reichenbach for 
holding on to elements of the Kantian doctrine. Instead, Schlick wanted Reichenbach 
to adopt the conventionalism of Poincaré. By acquiescing to Schlick, the notion of 

39 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 165.
40 Cf. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, p. Chapter 4 and Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 165 and 

Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Smith Norman K., Trans.) p. 56.
41 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, pp. 33, 47.
42 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 7.
43 Ibid.
44 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 7.
45 Ibid., p. 7 and especially pp. 66 – 68.



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relativized a priori was lost.46 Later, as Friedman points out, Reichenbach devoted 
his writing to reconciling post-general relativity science to the conventionalism of 
Schlick and Poincaré.47 

Schlick’s conventionalism grew out of that of Poincaré and the work of David Hilbert. 
From the former, Schlick was persuaded that the question of which of the geometries 
is to be applied to space is a matter to be settled by experience and requirements 
of overall simplicity of our scientific conceptual system. Applying the Helmholtz-
Lie theorem, which states that based on the experience (or idealization in the case 
of Poincaré) that rigid motion is possible in our space, our space must be either 
Euclidean or characterized by one of the manifolds of constant curvature,48 Poincaré 
thought that the choice between the non-Euclidean and Euclidean geometries was 
conventional based on which was the most expedient to work with.49 From Hilbert, 
Schlick got the idea of ‘implicit definitions’, namely that the axioms of a geometry 
implicitly define the geometry’s primitive terms. Different geometries differ in so far 
as they employ different implicit definitions of ‘point,’ ‘line,’ ‘between,’ and so on. 

As Friedman points out, the conventionalism of Poincaré and Schlick is in no way 
different from Duhemian holism, which is the idea that the theoretical components 
of our conceptual system face the tribunal of experience not in isolation, but as 
a whole.50 So, Schlick’s conventionalism does not do justice to the principles of 
geometry and differs from the linguistic conventionalism of Carnap that I shall now 
proceed to explain.

4.4 LINGUISTIC CONVENTIONALISM

According to Friedman, where Reichenbach had failed to give a clear explication of 
the difference between the axioms of coordination and the axioms of connection, 
Carnap, in the Logical Syntax of Language, had the machinery to do so: L-rules51 (the 
analytic) and P-rules (the synthetic) of the physical language of science. The choice 
of L-rules and the interpretation that made them true is a matter of convention, for 
these rules are purely formal and one has a lot of leeway in selecting the L-rules in the 
formulation of a language. In Classical Mechanics, for example, the L-rules include 
the principles of Euclidean geometry, while the P-rules are the general principles 
and laws of physics. In General Relativity, the L-rules include a topology sufficient 

46 Ibid., pp. 64 This is important because Putnam, in “Analytic and Synthetic,” in a footnote on p. 47, cites 
Reichenbach’s 1928 Philosophy of Space and Time (Reichenbach, 1956) which suggests publication dates 
much later than the ones which Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 7 is drawing from to explain 
Reichenbach’s conception of the relativized a priori.

47 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 63.
48 Cf. Ibid., p. 77.
49 Since he died in 1912, Poincaré was not aware that Einstein would, in fact, use a non-Euclidean geometry of 

variable curvature. See Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 79.
50 Cf. The foregoing discussion with Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, pp. 64 – 65 and pp. 78 - 79.
51  Cf. Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 13. “The L-rules or logical rules represent the purely formal, 

non-empirical part of our scientific theory, whereas P-rules or physical rules represent its material or empirical 
content.”



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Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College

to admit the 4-dimensional semi-Riemannian manifold of non-constant curvature, 
while the P-rules now include applied geometry through optics and the other general 
laws of physics. What is important to note for Carnap, says Friedman, is that the 
L-rules (or analytic sentences) are distinguished from the P-rules at a given stage 
in the development of the scientific enterprise.52 That they are revisable in light of 
the development of the scientific enterprise is exemplified by applied or physical 
geometry in the move from classical mechanics to general relativity. However, Carnap 
can still say this and can also hold on to the idea that in a physical language there is a 
distinction between analytic sentences and synthetic sentences. For it is the analytic 
sentences, axioms of coordination (in the case of Reichenbach) and conventions (in 
the case of Poincaré and Schlick), that are constitutive of any endeavor to gain any 
objective scientific knowledge.53 In other words, only if we are armed with the axioms 
of coordination or L-rules can we begin to generate hypotheses and test them.54 
Thus, it is useful to have the distinction between the analytic and the synthetic even 
in science. 

On the other hand, I would argue that holists, like Putnam, who oppose the 
distinction in science, have a hard time responding to the Kantian question of “how is 
pure mathematics possible?” That is, they have a hard time explaining why mathematics 
and logic seem to be necessarily true, and therefore a priori. While they would say 
that mathematics and logic are framework principles which are to be identified with 
centrality and priority within our conceptual scheme, such that if revisions become 
necessary due to advances in science they are the last to be considered for revision,55 I 
would still argue that the holists would be hard pressed to explain away our belief that 
there is a marked difference between mathematics, on the one hand, and physical 
laws, on the other. The former cannot be otherwise, while the latter can. 

4.5 APPLIED GEOMETRY AND THE PHYSICAL 
INTERPRETATION OF A STRAIGHT LINE

Lastly, we may critically evaluate Putnam’s essay with respect to the physical 
interpretation of a straight line. Hume, Putnam says, would rather deny that light 
rays travel in straight lines than conclude that Euclid’s postulate 5 is false.56 In 
other words, optical theory was synthetic for Hume and (pure) Euclidean geometry 
was analytic. In a footnote to a remark on Reichenbach, Putnam points out that 
Reichenbach actually claimed that there were other possible alternative coordinative 
definitions of ‘straight line’.57 I take this to imply that for Reichenbach, the optical 
52 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 13.
53 Ibid.
54 Cf. Rudolf, Carnap, Foundations of Mathematics and Logic (International Encyclopedia of Unified Science ; Vol. 

1, no. 3) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1939) p. 1 where he says, “In these theoretical activities, 
deduction plays an important part; this includes calculation, which is a special form of deduction applied to 
numerical expressions.”

55 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, p. 40.
56 Ibid., pp. 46 - 47.
57 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, p. 47.



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Is Geometry Analytic

theory was analytic (in the sense of stipulated true by convention) while the principles 
of geometry in General Relativity were synthetic.58 Putnam says that both Hume and 
Reichenbach are wrong:

The principle that light travels in straight lines is a law of optics, nothing 
more or less serious than that. We test the conjunction of geometry and 
optics indeed, and if we get into trouble, then we can alter either the 
geometry or the optics, depending on the nature of the trouble.59 

It is possible that Reichenbach was correct in Putnam’s footnoted discussion.60 For in 
a very enlightening discussion on the empiricism with respect to geometry of Ernst 
Mach, Torretti points out that there are alternative physical interpretations of the 
straight line. In fact, interpreting straight line as the path of a light ray may not be 
the best approximation of a straight line. In this discussion from Mach on how planes 
are constructed in practice:

Physically a plane is constructed by rubbing three bodies together until 
three surfaces A, B, C, are obtained, each of which exactly fits the others – 
a result which can be accomplished […] with neither convex nor concave 
surfaces, but with plane surfaces only.61 

Torretti observes, “If you construct two adjacent planes by this method, their 
common edge will provide a better approximation of the straight line than any taut 
string or light ray.”62 

5. CONCLUSION
What this observation by Torretti on the passage from Mach suggests to me is that we 
have a choice of what physical interpretation to give our pure geometrical concepts. 
Therefore, Reichenbach could have been right in saying that the optical theory 
is analytic, hence a priori relative to pre-general relativity physics. Recall that, in 
presenting Carnap’s view, I said that Friedman argues that, for Carnap, the choice of 
L-rules and the interpretation that made them true is a matter of convention.63 Now 
when we stipulate the interpretation of a straight line as the path of a ray of light, the 
stipulation is a matter of convention, since there are alternatives that are equally good 
physical interpretations. Now, given that in the discussion of kinetic energy, Putnam 
seems to grant that conventions are valid only if there are alternatives;64 and, given that 
there are alternative interpretations of a straight line, it follows that statements in 
the optical theory that interpret geometrical concepts are valid conventions, and are 
58 Ibid., p. 49.
59 Ibid., p. 49f
60 Ibid., p. 47.
61 Torretti, Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré , p. 283
62 Ibid.
63 Friedman, Reconsidering Logical Positivism, p. 13.
64 Putnam, “Analytic and Synthetic”, pp. 45 He says, “[‘e=1/2 mv^2’] would be true by stipulation, yes, but only in 

a context which is defined by the fact that the only alternative principle is ‘e = mv’”



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Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College

hence analytic. So, using the idea of the relativized a priori from Friedman, I want 
to suggest that Reichenbach could have been right in saying that the optical theory, 
which is a kind of applied geometry, was analytic (in the sense of stipulated as true by 
convention), and hence a priori, relative to pre-general relativity science. But optical 
theory (applied geometry) is now synthetic, and hence not a priori, relative to general 
relativity physics, and we can say this, however, without having to deny the view that 
pure Euclidean geometry is analytic in Carnap’s sense. F

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ayer, A.J. Language, Truth and Logic. New York: Dover Publications, 1952.

Einstein, Albert. Sidelights on Relativity. New York: Dover, 1983.

Friedman, M. Reconsidering Logical Positivism. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: 
Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Putnam, H. Mind, Language, and Reality. Putnam, Hilary. Philosophical papers; v. 2. 
Y. Cambridge [Eng.]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Torretti, R. Philosophy of Geometry from Riemann to Poincaré (Episteme; v. 7). 
Dordrecht-Holland; Boston: D. Reidel Pub, 1978.


