What does apriorist mean?
An apriorist is someone who believes that genuine knowledge rests on a priori principles — truths grasped by reason alone, independent of observation or experiment. The term derives from the Latin phrase a priori, meaning 'from what comes before,' and stands in direct contrast to the empiricist, who insists that knowledge must be grounded in experience. Apriorists appear most often in discussions of philosophy, logic, mathematics, and methodology: a mathematician who trusts pure deduction over data, or a philosopher who treats certain concepts as innate structures of the mind, may both be called apriorists. The word carries a somewhat technical, scholarly tone and is rarely heard outside academic debate. It is useful precisely because it names a deep divide in how people think about knowledge itself — whether truth is discovered in the world or already present within reason.
nounA person who reasons from or insists on a priori principles — truths accepted as self-evident and independent of experience — rather than deriving conclusions from observation.
- A person who adheres to a priori reasoning or principles, especially in philosophy or epistemology.
"As an unrepentant apriorist, she dismissed the survey data as irrelevant to questions of pure logic."
"Kant is often described as an apriorist because he argued that certain forms of knowledge are independent of sensory experience."
"The economist was a thoroughgoing apriorist, deducing his entire theory from first principles without appeal to empirical data."
Standard plural; used when referring to multiple thinkers or schools holding a priori views.
"Rationalists of the seventeenth century were largely apriorists."
An apriorist doesn't need to look out the window to know the answer — for them, some truths are simply built into reason itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of apriorist
The word apriorist combines 'a priori' — Latin for 'from what comes before' — with the agent suffix '-ist', denoting an adherent of a doctrine. The Latin phrase entered European philosophical vocabulary in the early modern period, notably through the rationalist tradition of Descartes and Leibniz and later Kant's critical philosophy, which distinguished a priori from a posteriori knowledge. The noun apriorist emerged to label thinkers committed to such principles, alongside the related term apriorism for the doctrine itself.
Related word forms
How apriorist is actually used
Primarily used in philosophical, academic, and intellectual-history contexts; rare in everyday conversation. It can function adjectivally (an apriorist argument), but its dominant use is as a noun describing a person or school of thought.
Easily confused with apriorist
An empiricist grounds knowledge in observation and experience, whereas an apriorist grounds it in principles held to be true independently of experience.