Originally Posted by
Skepticurus
When I hear a priori being used in typology, which is really concerned with one's "true" type, I cannot help but make the association of that which is a priori is really just a way of saying that preferences are predetermined, that type is predetermined. But if any preference is predetermined, it cannot be said to be a preference, which requires at least some degree of choice, that one could have had things differently.
Jung said that one's type can change throughout one's life. He claimed his own did on more than one occasion. This could not happen if one's cognitive preferences were a priori. So the trouble is in determining between which parts of a person's overall mental features are predetermined and which are not; what is it exactly that is a priori. Only those features that could not have developed any other way for the individual can be said to be a prior, but that doesn't make them preferences. I think that is the point in which typing becomes muddled in things we can can't really know about another person. We can never really know whether a person is really smiling because they feel happy or that they are just trying to influence you, or worse manipulate, or that it was an automatic reflex and they don't even know why they smiled; there could be no reason at all.
I am a skeptic because there are just some things one can never know and the more I read and learn about typology, the more uncertain and unknowable I find its claims to be. They are still useful, but I'm more concerned with recognizing limits, avoiding unjustified certainty, and withholding certain types of judgements until there is more information. I reserve my right to be respectfully skeptical. I sometimes get aggressive with dogmatists. I'm not saying you are one, but I have come across numerous typology/Jung dogmatists online and they sometimes try my patience.
I see we differ quite a bit on philosophical matters. I have thought considerably about the points you've made, they are just unclear to me and I doubt them. I do appreciate your civility in your responses. It is a rare trait online these days.