A-Priori and Empericism

It has been a while since the lecture entitled 'Economics' happened and since it's conclusion I have been wondering what to write about. I am still a little unsure on some of the philosophies mentioned by Chris. But one thing I did pick up from the lecture were the beliefs of David Icke. "The reptilian bloodline that rules the world" a quote taken from his website, an A-Priori view on the world’s leaders. A theory that sounds ridiculous and impossible to prove. But then that’s the point, I think. A theory that someone can't disprove.


I'm not sure if this was an example that Chris was looking for but, peoples belief in God or a supreme being is A-Priori thinking. The Bible, a religious text telling us that God exists written thousands of years ago believed by millions around the world, is all there is to convince us of his/her/it's existence. There is just as much proof of Spiderman’s existence than God's. putting faith into a being that may or may not be there is pretty much what A-Priori is all about, logical reasoning, but to be honest the idea of a supreme being having control over our lives is not logical at all, to a scientific thinker. On the other hand Darwin's theory of evolution, which has mountains of evidence to back it up is as logical as you can get. Two sides of a never ending debate. But that’s a debate for another time.

The opposing view to this is Empiricsm...a much easier Philosophy to get my head around. Seeing is believing. Empiricists believe experience is knowledge. For it to be real they have to be able to see, hear, smell or touch it. Evidence is everything; consequently this has led to huge advances in technology in the past 100 years. When the Church was in charge of proceedings in Britain there weren't exactly any great scientific breakthroughs. For instance people believed that the world was flat since the classical Greeks said so, and this was for so long because there was no one to question it, until someone went and explored to find that it was in fact impossible to fall off the face of the earth. I don't think that the most religious of people could argue against how significant the technological advances have been on mankind. Our understanding of the forces around us have helped with these, the musings of Einstein and Newton have improved the lifesyles of most in the world. Where would we be if there was no one to question the things around us and use the answers to our benefit?

I started this blog with the intentions of helping myself and my readers to understand the principles of both belief systems using examples, but have found myself arguing on the Empiricists side against the A-Priori believers, in fact probably all believers in God and religion. Probably not the best people to start an argument with so with that in mind I think now is as good a point as any to stop digging myself a hole and leave it at that