{"id":1389,"date":"2025-09-28T11:18:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qrpascal.com\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2025-09-28T11:28:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T15:28:52","slug":"a-priori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qrpascal.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/28\/a-priori\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018a priori\u2019 Meaning, Use, and Origin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every political theory starts somewhere. Long before data tables or election maps, scholars choose certain starting truths about human nature, cooperation, or the structure of the world that are the base for everything that follows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philosophers call these starting truths a priori<\/strong> (Latin<\/em> for \u201cfrom the earlier\u201d or \u201cfrom what is before\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern usage was started by Immanuel Kant<\/strong>, who defined a priori<\/em> judgments as those \u201cindependent of experience\u201d and contrasted them with a posteriori<\/em>, which \u201chave their source in experience\u201d (Critique of Pure Reason<\/em>, 1781\/1998). Kant argued that some principles, like mathematics or the forms of space and time, are necessary conditions for any possible experience. Political science borrowed this language to describe the assumptions that underlie its own theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Hans Morgenthau<\/strong> in Politics Among Nations<\/em> (1948) treats the struggle for power as a fundamental feature of politics: an a priori premise about human nature.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenneth Waltz<\/strong>\u2019s Theory of International Politics<\/em> (1979) begins with the axiom that the international system is anarchy, not something observed once but presupposed to explain recurring patterns of war and peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more contemporary scholars such as\u00a0Alexander Wendt<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0Social Theory of International Politics<\/em>\u00a0(1999) and the co-edited\u00a0Quantum International Relations<\/em>\u00a0(2022)<\/a> discuss how unexamined assumptions frame our understanding of global order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These examples show why the phrase a priori<\/em> keeps appearing in political science literature: it names the invisible scaffolding on which our explanations of world politics are built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Use A Priori<\/em> in a Sentence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In scholarly English, a priori<\/em> is treated as an adjective<\/strong> or adverb<\/strong> and usually set off with commas when it modifies a whole clause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an adjective<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWaltz\u2019s model rests on a priori assumptions<\/strong> about state behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As an adverb<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA priori<\/strong>, one might expect democracies to cooperate more than autocracies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Both forms signal that the claim does not depend on specific evidence<\/strong> but is assumed for theoretical or logical reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid using it merely to mean \u201cearlier\u201d or \u201cbeforehand,\u201d which would dilute its precise philosophical sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Say A Priori<\/em> Instead of \u201cPreviously\u201d?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At first glance a priori<\/em> can look like a fancy way of saying \u201cbeforehand.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BUT! in scholarly writing (especially political science and philosophy) it carries a sharper, technical meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n