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LU6 Q&A
Philosophy of the Mind
What is the difference between a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge?
A priori knowledge is “not knowledge which is independent of this or that experience, but knowledge absolutely independent of all experience” (Kant, 1781, as cited by Kitcher, 1980, p. 4). Therefore, a priori knowledge is a type of knowledge that is not influenced by our experiences, whereby through our sensory experiences such as the things we see and hear, or by things that we had gone through in our lifetime that invoked certain emotions. Meanwhile, Moser (1998) stated that a posteriori knowledge is actually a knowledge caused by our experiences. An example of a priori knowledge is knowing the sum of 3 + 2 is 5. This is done by pure logic, instead of being influenced by others. An example of a posteriori knowledge, however, is knowing that most Americans in the US speaks English because one may have seen a lot of English-speaking Americans in the media, or through experiencing it when visiting the US.
What are the criticism to the ‘materialism’ theory in explaining the mind-body problem?
In the theory of materialism proposed by Democritus, he believed that the mind is also part of the body, and that only matter seemed to exist and all things can be reduced to matter, for example, human beings to atoms. This is also a reductionist view. However, there are certain critiques to this theory. For example, Pandora (2019) argued that mental states cannot be reduced to physical states in line with reductionism. Besides, Pandora also stated that some philosophers do not agree that mental states can actually be reduced. Therefore, there are some flaws to the ‘materialism’ theory.
What are the effects of synesthesia?
Synesthesia is a condition whereby a certain stimulus may cause someone to experience different senses (Cade, 2021). For example, when someone sees the colour red, they may not only see red, but are also able to smell something sweet, like a candy bar, every time they see the colour red. People with synesthesia are shown to have better memory, as every stimulus they have experienced will trigger more than one senses, which will become a pleasant or interesting experience that helps them to be able to remember better.