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Psychology
Priori vs Posterior Knowledge
Priori vs Posterior Knowledge The controversial discussion of priori or posteriori knowledge is very difficult to take a firm side on. I personally lean more towards the posteriori knowledge. I believe that human beings, opposed to other animals, have learned knowledge. A child begins to learn while developing in the mother’s womb. The child learns the mothers voice, reaction to noises, and sucking abilities prior to birth. When the child is delivered, miniscule relationships between the mother and baby have to be developed. The child learns how to feed from her breast, walk, and choreograph its cry in a matter that the mother can relate it to the corresponding need. The concept of good and evil is definitely one of which we have no prior knowledge. As a child grows into the toddler stage, we begin to teach behavior and enforce it. The passing years require the child to take accumulating responsibility of its action either way. We teach them that good behavior can be rewarded, while bad behavior is punished or some kind of reinforcement is applied. Did the child possess any of these traits prior to learning them? I don’t think so. Although the human ability to perceive has no bounds, they are just perceptions that are learned or developed from personal experiences. Earlier, I stated conversely, the possibility of other animals having priori knowledge. Many species possess Nativism, such as baby goats and chicks avoiding visual cliffs while only a few hours old. Humans do not possess this phenomenal knowledge without experience, thereby neutralizing the phenomenon. A human baby, left alone at 1 year old, will die of thirst and starvation even though it is in a room filled with morsels and beverages. This same infant will walk directly off a cliff providing mom or dad is not there to stop it. There are no instincts preventing the child from this behavior, or allowing it. I do believe that humans have some fixed-action patterns or instincts that can be noted. Amazingly, many obstetricians have documented that directly prior to a woman delivering her child, she experiences a surge of energy. Psychologists believe that this behavior, called the “Nesting Instinct,” is instinctive to prepare for the baby. I personally witnessed my wife bake cookies, enough to feed a household of six, right before going into labor with our first child. This behavior is also common in birds and other animals that build nests for their young. They know instinctively when to prepare the nest for the new arrival. Another fixed- action pattern that is common in all species is the “Fight or Flight” phenomenon. This behavior is a triggered response to threat. Basically, when we face physical danger, or witness a loved one being threatened, we instinctively have a rush of adrenaline that helps us to succeed in our choice to either run or fight. To try and explain these behaviors as being learned would be ludicrous. How are these behaviors explained if they are not learned? I would offer that there is a Deity that fitted each and every thing with the knowledge, or lack of that they need to survive. This Supreme Being also helps us in our decisions as we make our personal voyage through life. I believed that there is a desired course of action, favorable to God, in every decision we make. Adversely, that also means that there is another choice that is the unfavorable choice to our Deity. God allows us the free will to make these decisions, while at the same time urging us to choose wisely. I also believe that while we have free will, he is the ultimate determinist. Considering that the Deity is omniscient, he already knows what we are going to decide and has already fixed the error before we make a decision. Although he helps us recover from poor decisions, we are not exempt from the consequential punishment for not deciding as instructed. These instructions were given to men inspirationally by God. They were documented and translated for all to read and understand. But, just reading the words are not enough to make the link we need to have the relationship noted above. To fully understand God’s instructions, we must have a spiritual relationship with him in our souls. Most people consider the soul to be the same as the mind. This is very hard for many people to understand, because many people’s minds are trained to suffice the wants of the flesh (body). These wants are different from the needs. We are trained from birth to satisfy survival needs, but the wants of the body can often be sinister. But, just as the mind is subject to a God, so is the body to Lucifer (devil). The King James Bible states that God formed man out of the dust of the earth, but he implanted the soul into the body. The soul is alien to the rest of the body. The bible also states that Lucifer is the god of the earth after being ousted from heaven, which would make the body subject to him. The body and soul are constantly in a tug of war, representative of their respective God. God’s intention was for the mind to be dominant over the body, but in many occasions the body’s devilish needs dominates the mind. The strongest will inevitably make the other its slave. The overall objective is the final destination of the soul. Whichever God the soul is adherent to will obtain that soul when it separates from the body. The body then returns to the earth and slowly reverts to its original form. Bibliography:
Word Count: 945
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