Comment by O'Neill_Pollingue on Infinite Certainty · 2008-01-10T00:52:14.000Z · LW · GW

If I correctly remember my Jesuit teachers' explanation from 40 years ago, the epistomological branch of classical philosophy deals thusly with this situation: an "a priori" assertion is one which exhibits the twin characteristics of universality and necessity. 2+2=4 would be such an assertion. Should there ever be an example which violates this a priori assertion, it is simply held to be unreal, because reality is a construct of consensus. Consensus dictates to reality but not to experience. So if, for example, you see a ghost or are abducted by a UFO, you're simply out of contact with reality, and, as a crazy person, you can't legitimately challenge what the rest of us hold to be indisputably true.