PHIL 119 Lecture Notes - Practical Philosophy, A Priori And A Posteriori
Document Summary
We have not experienced it through our senses. It is the form of knowledge: example: we make claims that parallel lines will never connect. We have no proof through experience, but we know it a priori through mathematical theory: a posteriori - knowledge we know through experience. We have come to this through extensive experience and practical sense. In physics, the a posteriori part describes the working of things in the natural world. The a priori part deals with the fundamental laws of nature. In ethics, the a posteriori part is called practical anthropology - what people believe is right and wrong and how people behave. The a priori part is the metaphysics of morals, how people ought to behave. We can never move from a posteriori in this case like the bible says murder is wrong to the a priori, one ought not to murder.
