In this paper I examine Chalmers and Jackson’s defence of the a priori entailment thesis, that is, the claim that microphysical
truths a priori entail ordinary non-phenomenal truths such as ‘water covers 60% of the Earth surface’, which they use as a
premise for an argument against the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness. Their argument relies on a certain
view about the possession conditions of macroscopic concepts such as WATER, known as ascriptivism. In the paper I distinguish
two versions of ascriptivism: reductive versus non-reductive ascriptivism. According to reductive ascriptivism, competent
users of a concept have the ability to infer truths involving such concept from lower-level truths, whereas according to non-reductive
ascriptivism, all that is required in order to be a competent user of a concept is to be able to infer truths involving that
concept from other truths, which need not be lower-level truths. I argue, first, that the a priori entailment thesis is committed
to reductive ascriptivism, and secondly, that reductive ascriptivism is problematic because it trivializes the notion of a
priori knowledge. Therefore, I conclude that Chalmers and Jackson have not presented a convincing case for the claim that
microphysical truths entail ordinary non-phenomenal truths a priori, especially when we understand this claim in the sense
that is relevant for their argument against the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness.
Keywords David Chalmers – Frank Jackson – Reductive explanation – Conceptual analysis – Phenomenal consciousness – A priori knowledge