On Nov 7, 2013, at 2:23 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
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> http://wsokol.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-short-soliloquy-on-freedom-and-fishing.html
>
"...Immanuel Kant answering the ages old question whether human
knowledge is subjective or objective. His answer was “both.” There
are subjective and objective elements in human knowledge, and indeed
all human perceptions of reality. What we feel and sense is
objective, that is, reflections of what is “out there” rather than
figments of our imagination as idealist philosophers maintained.
However, how all our perceptions and indeed all our thoughts are
organized into coherent wholes is subjective, that is, controlled by
residing in human mind rather than “out there” in reality, contrary to
what realist philosophers maintained. Kant’s solution, while
ingenious, nonetheless posed a pernicious question about the origins
of those apriori forms themselves. Since different people use
different apriori forms to organize their perceptions and thought
process, asking about the origins of these forms is a legitimate
philosophical pursuit.
Durkheim’s answer to this question was probably one of the most fruitful inventions in social science. Apriori forms are ingrained in human mind by society in which individuals live, by ritualized forms of social behavior, such as religion or ceremonies, which in turn, reflect the idealized form of social organization, that is, how different roles, functions, statuses, rewards, etc. are distributed among members of that society..."
This is a great example of sociological imperialism seizing philosophical territory with the most barbaric force. What Wojtek calls "*a priori* forms of perception and reasoning" are in fact the three fundamental categories of *Time,* "Space," and "Causality." These are "a posteriori* (the deduced preconditions for any perception or action whatsoever) and in no sense *a priori* (posited propositions from which the actual forms of perception and reasoning are to be deduced). That such is the case would be obvious to anyone who can recognize that all sentient beings, without exception, sense their spacial configuration, the durational flow of their own and surrounding natural process, and the fact that their behavior has consequences for them.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64