Your Eyes Can Deceive You

So, I marched in the local MLK Day parade. The group I was with was attempting to make a point about the school to prison pipeline, so I was dressed up as a prisoner to make things dramatic and draw attention to the message. The problem was that many people actually thought I was a prisoner and treated me quite disrespectfully. Other people did not recognize me with the costume on.

I tell that story in an attempt to make a point. That being that while generalizations are useful in most everyday life (the fact I liked every other steak I have eaten makes my choices at a new restaurant easier to make when steak is on the menu, for example) but can get in the way of understanding in specific circumstances. In my case today it literally caused someone to not "see" me, meaning that belief altered the perception they had of the world.

So, the first thing of note to me is how this literally reinforces the idea that our focus determines our reality. Faulty Generalizations and other related inductive fallacies can lead to a form of tunnel vision that leads people to see what they want/wish/expect to see.

This then leads to a pair of questions. The first is at what point should we discard a posteriori knowledge and focus on current circumstances? The second is whether A priori knowledge should be considered an inherently better form of understanding.

Some people are ignorant, which is different from being stupid, which can be forgiven. Focus on what you feel is right. You seem like a good person.

posteriori knowledge

current circumstance

A priori knowledge

I got no freaking idea?

What do your feelings tell you?

Posteriori means comes from experience and priori means before experience. The first is often used to describe science while the latter is more math - you don't learn 2+2=4 by running experiments for example.

So, you were dressed as a prisoner, and people thought you were one...

This is a little different than one's eyes deceiving them....

You were trying to draw attention and got it, perhaps not the attention you wanted, but still, any deception is on your part, not ones eyes.

Khaos wrote: You were trying to draw attention and got it, perhaps not the attention you wanted, but still, any deception is on your part, not ones eyes.

But it was at a parade, lol. I'd think you'd assume anything out of place was a bit of innocent fun at a parade! xD

Apparently not, and you know what they say about assumptions.

Terrorist attacks happen at marathons.

Assume nothing.

In a way I agree with both khaos and hidden here. Yes, on a holiday parade one should expect people dressed up and not assume their clothing to tell anything about who they really are. On the other hand we are talking about a country a quarter of which said they were in favour of bombing Agrabah, so any presumption of not being mistaken is a gross underestimation of the sheer stupid of the people around oneself.

Now as for the OP's questions, I could go on a lengthy and detailed explanation but I shan't unless asked.
Should we discard a posteriori knowledge in favour of current happenings? I don't think we can, but I also don't think we should. Short of formal logic and - by extrapolation - math (and even that is highly arguable), pretty much all knowledge is a posteriori. To abandon it is to abandon the only world we know matters to anyone other than our individual selves. To score some points with enthusiastic young Jediists I could tie this to matters of Jedi philosophy and doctrine, but it would hardly make the point any stronger or weaker for it, so again, I shan't, until further notice.
Ought we consider a priori knowledge as inherently better than other forms? Again, I don't think we can but neither that we should. First of all, I don't know what "inherently better" means or whether that is at all coherent. Aside from that, what "better" means is also unspecified. There is no dichotomy between the two, no need to elect one over and in place of the other. But I'd even go so far as to say that a priori knowledge is inferior, if anything. Frankly I'm not sure what a priori knowledge would even look like. If you can't show a thing, how can you claim to know it? And if the thing is truly a priori in that it didn't go through any sort of epistemic filters first, how is it anything other than completely useless?

The people that didn't know me I don't blame so much. The ones that did are another story. They saw the costume and nothing else.

What I meant by better is more reliable or a more accurate representation of reality.

Gisteron, you answered the question quite well without it, so there was no need to draw on jedi philosophy unless you felt you needed to. Also, if I was wanting a basis in jedi philosophy I would have asked for it.

Also - two things that I meant to post earlier in response to Rickie but didn't get to. 1) My gut does not always work. I have a history of stunning social cluelessness. I therefore have taken the position that it is better to ask a question about something and appear an idiot than actually be one. 2) "Using my gut" to get an answer would mean that I would pass up a chance to discuss philosophy with people, something I enjoy quite a lot. So, my motivation here was essentially have some fun discussing matters that could be of potentially practical utility to me.

sharpgenes wrote: Also - two things that I meant to post earlier in response to Rickie but didn't get to. 1) My gut does not always work. I have a history of stunning social cluelessness. I therefore have taken the position that it is better to ask a question about something and appear an idiot than actually be one. 2) "Using my gut" to get an answer would mean that I would pass up a chance to discuss philosophy with people, something I enjoy quite a lot. So, my motivation here was essentially have some fun discussing matters that could be of potentially practical utility to me.

You know how to get wisdom? As you gain more wisdom you'll trust your gut more. You are what you are. It takes time. As your questions. You're a good person.

I have a history of stunning social cluelessness.

I invented this. :woohoo: I have been an idiot. :laugh: I repeat often. :ohmy: