A priori and a posteriori

one’s life with a blank slate–tabula rasa–an empty mind with essentially no existing rules, reasons, or ideas. It is the idea that one’s thoughts, ideas, and knowledge are formed and conceived based from experience. These thoughts arise through a posteriori, which means it is gained after or post experience and involves sensory perception. According to John Locke, an English philosopher, one’s ideas stem from experience and the ability to connect those experiences to a resulting knowledge base.…

(emotions, needs and desires). Ideas, on the contrary, are copies of impressions. For example, some ideas are not direct copies of a impression, but modifications of impressions. Hence, aligning with his belief that the imagination functions in the a priori where the imagination is subjective to all our emotions, needs and…

scientific knowledge and self-knowledge. Based on the source from which the knowledge manifests, allows one to distinguish between the following two types of propositional knowledge. A priori knowledge, also known as universal knowledge, is arrived at independently of all particular experiences and held universally; a posteriori knowledge derives from the experience. According to Aristotle, human beings have a natural desire and capacity to understand the truth and to represent their ideals in…

The discussion regarding free will and determinism is extensive and ever pressing. David Hume believes that the two (of which he refers to as liberty and necessity respectively) are intrinsically compatible, and that the dispute surrounding the issue is a result of failing to accurately define the terms. Hume proposes that through his interpretations of the two, it will become apparent that the debate about liberty and necessity is merely verbal. While some insist that Hume’s account of liberty…

Essay on Plato's Analogy of the Cave Plato's Republic was written as a biting political critique, a revolutionary piece about the state of society and how it must be improved. However, Plato also delves into philosophy in the Republic and while the Analogy of the Cave is an extremely politically charged statement, it reveals much about Plato's ideas about epistemology and philosophy. Plato starts in his usual dialogue style of writing, by imploring Glaucon (Plato's brother) to imagine men in…

for thousands of years. Philosophers have been using arguments as an attempt to validate their beliefs. To do this, philosophers string together a series of statements to form different types of arguments, including deductive, inductive, a priori, and a posteriori arguments. Furthermore, a few philosophers use evidential approaches to establish the existence of God. Often, these approaches include pragmatics or direct perception, such as appeals to religious experience. Generally, religious…

The 100 commitments build on previous years a posteriori statements, reported on achievements throughout the year. “Whether it is consciously set forth in advance or is simply a widely held understanding resulting form a stream of decisions, this pattern becomes the real strategy of the enterprise. And…