Lexic.us

Definition of A priori

1. Adverb. Derived by logic, without observed facts.

2. Adjective. Involving deductive reasoning from a general principle to a necessary effect; not supported by fact. "An a priori judgment"

3. Adjective. Based on hypothesis or theory rather than experiment.

Definition of A priori

1. Adjective. (legal) Known ahead of time. ¹

2. Adjective. (logic) Based on hypothesis rather than experiment. ¹

3. Adjective. Self-evident, intuitively obvious ¹

4. Adjective. Presumed without analysis ¹

5. Adjective. (context: linguistics of a constructed language) Developed entirely from scratch, without deriving it from existing languages.Donald J. Harlow, [ How to Build a Language] ¹

6. Adverb. (logic) In a way based on theoretical deduction rather than empirical observation ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of A priori

1. 1. Characterising that kind of reasoning which deduces consequences from definitions formed, or principles assumed, or which infers effects from causes previously known; deductive or deductively. The reverse of a posteriori. 3. Applied to knowledge and conceptions assumed, or presupposed, as prior to experience, in order to make experience rational or possible. "A priori, that is, form these necessities of the mind or forms of thinking, which, though first revealed to us by experience, must yet have preexisted in order to make experience possible." (Coleridge) Origin: L. A (ab) + prior former. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of A Priori

a million a million times a miss is as good as a mile a new broom sweeps clean a nod is as good as a wink a non domino a notch above a number of a penny saved is a penny earned a penny saved is a penny gained

a people a piacere a picture is worth a thousand words a picture paints a thousand words a posteriori a priori a quick drop and a sudden stop a riddle wrapped up in an enigma a rising tide lifts all boats a rolling stone gathers no moss

a scholar and a gentleman a small matter a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down a sprat to catch a mackerel a stitch in time saves nine a stopped clock is right twice a day a super lot a thing or two a thousand

Literary usage of A priori

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (1901)
"Thus, if a man undermined his house, we say, "he might know a priori that it would have fallen"; ... But still, a priori, he could not know even this much. ..."

2. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"With regard to these, Kant's first remark is that their necessity ami universality must be a priori. That nothing which is universal and necessary can come ..."

3. The Monist by Hegeler Institute (1903)
"That is, the evidence of their synthetic nature rested on the ground that the synthesis was not a priori. Hence his conception must apply to the ..."

4. A History of Philosophy, from Thales to the Present Time by Friedrich Ueberweg, Noah Porter (1876)
"(Esthetic, tho science of the a priori principles of sensibility, Kant seeks to demonstrate the à priori character of space and time. ..."

5. Works of Thomas Hill Green by Thomas Hill Green, Richard Lewis Nettleship (1890)
"It is another question whether the a priori factor in our moral consciousness, which can alone give any moral bearing to the experience of matters of fact ..."

6. Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: In Commemoration of the Centenary by Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Max Müller (1896)
"Besides their empirical use all these faculties have a transcendental use also, referring to'the form only and possible a priori. With regard to the senses ..."

7. Southern History of the War by Edward Alfred Pollard (1866)
"That feature an accident, and not an a priori discovery.—Enumeration of defects in the Constitution.—The weakness and ignorance of its framers. ..."

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