{"id":472,"date":"2019-04-01T21:08:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/?p=472"},"modified":"2019-04-01T21:08:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:08:27","slug":"knowledge-without-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/presence\/2019\/04\/01\/knowledge-without-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge Without Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Peterson’s talk about the idea of\u00a0A Priori Knowledge\u00a0<\/em> was incredibly interesting, and a topic I had never given much thought to before.\u00a0 A priori knowledge, as I know now, is the knowledge of a certain thing whether physical or conditional, without having experienced that certain thing.\u00a0 Conditionally, someone may not have experienced what prejudice truly is and feels like, but one can understand that it is a bad thing that must be eradicated from this world.\u00a0 Physically, one may know that they don’t want to get punched in the face even if they haven’t been punched in the face because they have the knowledge that getting punched in the face would hurt.\u00a0 I have always found these philosophical and slightly psychological terms interesting because I know that I have a priori knowledge without having experienced things that would give me that knowledge, but I never knew that this was an actual phenomenon that can be studied and discussed.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Peterson, like two of our other speakers, focused a sizable portion of his talk on a priori knowledge, or much of society’s lack thereof, and the reasons as to why some refuse to object to or even disregard climate change entirely.\u00a0 We know through our other talks that climate change affects the less wealthy in our society in a greater way than those who do have great wealth.\u00a0 Because of this, we see people that have never really had to deal with the effects of climate change argue that it is not a big deal or that it does not really exist at all.\u00a0 These people lack a priori knowledge in that because they haven’t experienced it they have no knowledge of it.\u00a0 This is similar to people not experiencing prejudice and then arguing that racism, anti semitism, or any of the like exist.\u00a0 These people have never had to deal with extremely poor air quality, they have never had to rebuild after experiencing a “once in a five hundred year storm,” or they’ve never seen their crops dry up due to a lack of rain.<\/p>\n

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I believe that working to gain as much a priori knowledge as possible is a goal everyone can and should work towards.\u00a0 It is impossible to experience everything, but it is possible to become knowledgeable about things that you will never experience.\u00a0 People must work to understand what it is like to “walk in another person’s shoes.”\u00a0 We must research, ask questions, and do anything we can so that we are not ignorant of things in this world.\u00a0 Doing so will lead to a more connected society of people who understand each other whether they’ve been through the same things or not.\u00a0 Even in today’s society, in which the world is so connected through the internet, social media, cell phones, and incredible transportation we see that people are still unaware of other people’s conditions.\u00a0 By improving this, we will not only improve relationships between people in our society, but we will be able to accomplish great things such as fighting climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Peterson’s talk about the idea of\u00a0A Priori Knowledge\u00a0 was incredibly interesting, and a topic I had never given much thought to before.\u00a0 A priori knowledge, as I know now, is the knowledge of a certain thing whether physical or conditional, without having experienced that certain thing.\u00a0 Conditionally, someone may not have experienced what prejudice … <\/p>\n

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