Empiricism And A-Priori. Just Baffling words?

Yes Empiricism and A-priori are indeed a pair of hyperbolically named words but their actual concepts are relatively easy to comprehend.

A simple definition of empiricism: Somebody who relies upon observation and experiment rather than theory to determine the truth about something.

A simple definition of A-Priori thinking: Is someone who has knowledge and reasoning, which is independent of experience.

Chris got me thinking when he labeled himself as whatever he said. People can’t possibly pigeonhole themselves by such flippant definitions. Can an empiricist not have A-priori views? Surely an individual’s behaviour cannot simply be broken down into such terms? Why can a person not have both of these views or even utilitarian views as well?

Historical philosophers have tried to incorporate different belief systems to create new ones (an example of this can be seen in the Vienna Circle establishing “logical empiricism”, which is a combination of empiricism and a-priori thinking) but these philosophers then usually only seem to adopt the stance they have created thus proving them to be ignorant.

An individual who holds a mixture of philosophical views is surely a normal person! People can have differing views within the same subject matter. An example could be seen in someone having an empiric view towards politicians e.g. they observe how they are programmed to lie etc. Conversely that same person may have A-priori feeling towards politics, after all politics is all about reasoning. Clearly this shows that humans are all different and a lot of philosophies can have an impact on an individual.

Examples of both schools of thought can be seen all over the media today. An example of empiricism can be seen in the guardian the other day where 438 jobs were lost at JJB Sports today. This is clear empiricism as regards to the recession; we can see it in motion as businesses such as JJB are constantly suffering. A-priori thinking is also very prominent in the media. Today in world news US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warned Congress that without the right policies from the government, the US recession could last into 2010. This is a good example of A-priori as it has not been proved but is a prediction through reasoning.