| 释义 |
‖ a priori, advb. (and adj.) phr.|eɪpraɪˈɔəraɪ|
[L. ā from, priōri what is before: cf. a posteriori.]
1. A phrase used to characterize reasoning or arguing from causes to effects, from abstract notions to their conditions or consequences, from propositions or assumed axioms (and not from experience); deductive; deductively.
1710[See a posteriori 1]. 1771Smeaton in Phil. Trans. LXI. 210 Nor can we a priori determine the value of any new instrument. 1834[See a posteriori 1]. 1862McCosh Supernat. ii. i. §2. 132 Reason commands us, in matters of experience, to be guided by observational evidence, and not by à priori principles.
2. Hence loosely: Previous to any special examination, presumptively, in accordance with one's previous knowledge or prepossessions.
1834Penny Cycl. II. 199/1 When a sentence begins with ‘à priori we should think, etc. etc.’ [it] in most cases will be found to mean nothing more than an expression of the leaning which the speaker found his mind inclined to, when he had only heard the proposition, and before he had investigated it. 1882Farrar Early Chr. I. 85 This, however, can have only been an à priori conjecture, and there is no evidence which can be adduced in its support.
3. By some metaphysicians used for: Prior to experience; innate in the mind.
1841Sir W. Hamilton in Reid's Wks. 762/1 The term a priori, by the influence of Kant and his school, is now very generally employed to characterise those elements of knowledge which are not obtained a posteriori,—are not evolved out of experience as facticious generalizations; but which, as native to, are potentially in, the mind antecedent to the act of experience. |