Keith Paterson’s lecture about the preconscious explores a priori, and its role in shaping our societal and cultural assumptions. a priori, or “from the former”, comes from Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and describes determinants of behavior based on information that is related to past events that never really happened. a priori is a tool that is used to build our conscious and subconscious assumptions. That as humans we naturally look for cause-and-effect relationships. Consequently, a priori dictates our societal rules and categorizations. We look for our differences and try and justify how they came to be. Kant regards a priori as the basis of cognition and argues that human knowledge and perspective is shared and shaped by a priori.
In the lecture, Paterson focused on this effect on the environmentalist movement. He spoke about how lethargy prevents us from taking action. How we, as humans, are not able to comprehend such widespread change. How our inertia and acceptance of the status quo hinders our ability to induce change. Our inability to change is based on our clinging onto a prioriand past experiences.
My initial reaction to hearing about a priori, was thinking about how this is so related to all the stereotyping and prejudice that exists today. We justify the racism, sexism, homophobia, other types of discrimination based on a priori, or illegitimate “reasons” based on information that is related to past events that never really happened. It’s based on a prioriwhere we gain “insights” about groups of people with identities that differ from our own. Here, one group bases laws or societal and cultural ideas around a priori, or fictional events or information. This leads me to believe that the basis of Jim Crowe Laws, slavery, Nazism, and colonialism are all based on a priori. In addition, the reason that there are so many vestiges of these ideologies is the inability to let go of a priori.
a priori, therefore, is a dangerous phenomenon. It is a perfect example of the presence of the past, and how it truly dictates the present and future. a priorican be credited for a lack of change among the environmentalist movement, as well as the lasting presence of discrimination. This inaction is due in part to where control lies. Currently, most decision-makers in our society are older, and holding on tightly to the ways of the past. With a louder, younger generation, we can only hope that we are able to shake ourselves of a priori and the stasis that comes with it.