Philosophy in Everyday Life

My favorite classes in college were by far the philosophy ones. Learning about the history of it and how it's affected the world was fascinating, and I soon discovered that philosophy does apply to everyday life, and for everyone.

One of my favorite examples is a priori and a posteriori knowledge. A priori knowledge is knowledge that someone has before something happens. It's sort of like a prediction, only stronger. A personal example is with me and certain foods; I'm an extremely picky eater, and I knew before I was forced to try tunafish and pickles that I would hate it. I often heard (and still hear) the popular refrain "How do you know you won't like it until you try it?", but it was something I just knew. I never cared for the smell or appearance of the foods, but I never experienced actually eating them, but I still knew I'd hate them.

A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is gained after experience or proof, such as something as universally known as the existence of dinosaurs or George Washington being the first president of the United States. On a personal level, it could be something as simple as looking outside and seeing that it's raining, or working with a customer and learning after the fact that he or she is a friendly or rude person.

We encounter the controversial philosophical subject of qualia when we open our closet doors. Qualia is a hot topic in philosophy, as it's an arguement that certain things, such as colors, automatically have feelings or sensations attached to them. For example, red being the color of passion, black for sadness, white for purity, green for earthly/natural things, blue for calmness, and so on. Traditions can weigh in to this arguement, as people often wear black fo funerals, and brides wear white on their wedding day, etc. If we want to cheer ourselves up, we might want to wear something bright, and if we want to look conservative or dressy, we might opt for black and white attire.

Every workplace deals with collectivism and individualism. Individualism is the focus on one's self rather than others, and collectivism is the opposite of that, with the individual's needs being sacrificed for the collective group. We all have stories in which one person's vision or wants rose over others (someone hates the smell of food, people can no longer eat at their desks) and in which the group came to a decision that not everyone agreed with. An example might be that in an office, most of the workers wanted a vending machine, and some didn't because they felt it would tempt them to spend money and eat junk food, but the majority ruled and the machine was installed.

Philosophy surrounds all of us, and these are just some examples of how it affects and defines us at home, at work, and in between.