Journal Time!

Science and its limitations | January 26, 2024

A priori refers to information gained through theorization. This is how most people live their lives, and believe their beliefs. They come up with some conclusion first, and then spend the rest of their days defending it. Reality is lauded if it conforms to their thoughts and damned when it doesn't.

Simply put, this is madness.

Science is a method through which we can reason and understand the world. It has given us incredible insight about the world. However, it is not in fact "correct." It isn't correct because these are simply models for how the world functions. The world does not go by the rules we write; the world simply does what it wants. The model is not the reality.

This is where I feel most people lose the plot: the model is not the reality. This means that when what we think ought to happen does not happen, or when what we think shouldn't happen ends up happening, it is not the fault of reality. This comes off as incredibly obvious to the point of banality. However, I feel like most people, including myself, think very differently. We cling to our models. We cling to our leanings. We cling to models of reality that make the most sense to us.

But they're wrong. We know they are wrong because that is not what actually happens. So why, then, do we stil keep the same models we know aren't accurate?

Humans aren't built for truth. Humans are barely built for logic. Humans are built to get by. It doesn't make evolutionary sense to try to understand a complex reality; our brains take lazy shortcuts, make heuristics that work a lot of the time, enough of the time to make it worth cementing in our minds and even our children.

But they're wrong. People just don't want to admit it.

A posteriori refers to information gained through observation. It is the opposite of a priori because it lets reality do almost all of the talking. A priori can exist completely regardless of what goes in reality.

Most of us have stopped listening to what reality is saying and doing. Most people don't want to have their views shaken. Most people don't like discomfort. And yet discomfort we must endure if we are to more accurately, more honestly reflect how things truly are.

It is simple to think one is undeserving of happiness. It is comforting thinking one is helpless to do anything about the world or themselves. It is a nice thought that people will naturally get along, or that they will naturally hate each other. It is simple to think that things are all one way or all another.

But the opposite way of thinking is also grotesque. Being unable or unwilling to make any sort of decisive statement leads to not much being said at all. The weasel words of "may," "some," and "practically" all leave wiggle room for one to say they didn't really mean what they meant. It's deplorable.

So, how then do we deal with a complex reality? Well, we have to listen, and then be decisive. There are things to be said about the world, but often they are more complex than can be expressed in a single thought or sentence or aphorism. But most of all, we have to accept that reality always comes first. We can't cling to comfort. We have to accept that things aren't how we want them to be. We have to accept we aren't who we think we are.

I don't want to see a thing...

- Kishibe, Chainsaw Man