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apriorism

apriorism

1 9.9
Belief that people know some truths before any experience
  • noun
  • /ˌeɪpraɪˈrɪzəm/
  • Formal
: apriorismo
  • In his works, Kant argued for apriorism, claiming that some knowledge exists independently of sensory experience.

Examples

  • The concept of apriorism suggests that we can know certain truths without empirical experience, like mathematical truths.

  • (I am not 100 percent convinced of pure apriorism myself, but it does seem to have certain advantages over the neoclassical mathematical approach.)

    Blog text (8)
  • Many philosophers debate the validity of apriorism in understanding knowledge that is presumed to be self-evident.

Synonyms

rationalism
vsapriorism
  • Formal
5 7.7

The belief that reason and logic give true knowledge more than feeling or experience

bases knowledge on self evident principles known without experience

Surface Forms

apriorism singular
apriorisms plural

Morphology

apriorism = a priori (semi-transparent) = a priori + ism

Built from the specialized philosophical phrase 'a priori' plus '-ism'; the doctrinal meaning is clear only to those familiar with the phrase.

Etymology

Apriorism comes from the Latin phrase a priori, which means 'from the earlier' and is like the English word prior meaning 'before'. So apriorism is the idea that some knowledge is known 'before experience' and does not need testing.