{"id":449,"date":"2019-03-27T17:20:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/?p=449"},"modified":"2019-04-01T00:52:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T00:52:15","slug":"the-fallacies-of-a-priori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/2019\/03\/27\/the-fallacies-of-a-priori\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fallacies of a priori"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Paterson’s lecture about the preconscious explores\u00a0a priori<\/em>, and its role in shaping our societal and cultural assumptions.\u00a0a priori<\/em>, or “from the former”, comes from Immanuel Kant’s\u00a0<\/span>Critique of Pure Reason <\/em>and\u00a0describes determinants of behavior based on information that is related to past events that never really happened.\u00a0a priori<\/em>\u00a0is a tool that is used to build our conscious and subconscious assumptions. That as humans we naturally look for cause-and-effect relationships. Consequently,\u00a0<\/span>a priori<\/em>\u00a0dictates our societal rules and categorizations. We look for our differences and try and justify how they came to be. Kant regards\u00a0a priori<\/em>\u00a0as the basis of cognition and argues that human knowledge and perspective is shared and shaped by\u00a0a priori.<\/em>\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

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 priori<\/em>and past experiences. <\/em><\/p>\n

My initial reaction to hearing about\u00a0a priori<\/em>, 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\u00a0a priori<\/em>, or illegitimate “reasons” based on information that is related to past events that never really happened. It\u2019s based on a priori<\/em>where we gain \u201cinsights\u201d about groups of people with identities that differ from our own. Here, one group bases laws or societal and cultural ideas around <\/em>a priori<\/em>, 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 <\/em>a priori<\/em>. In addition, the reason that there are so many vestiges of these ideologies is the inability to let go of <\/em>a priori<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

a priori<\/em>, 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. <\/em>a priori<\/em>can 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 <\/em>a priori\u00a0<\/em>and the stasis that comes with it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Paterson’s lecture about the preconscious explores\u00a0a priori, and its role in shaping our societal and cultural assumptions.\u00a0a priori, or “from the former”, comes from Immanuel Kant’s\u00a0Critique of Pure Reason and\u00a0describes determinants of behavior based on information that is related to past events that never really happened.\u00a0a priori\u00a0is a tool that is used to build … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Fallacies of a priori”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9876,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[441762],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}