apriorism
nounEtymology From a priori + -ism, after French apriorisme.
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences The idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically from general principles.
- The linguistic apriorism of Chomsky has stimulated some psychologists to search for nonlinguistic roots of language development.1982, Dan I Slobin, in Eric Wanner & Lila Gleitman, Language Acquisition, p. 128
- What was needed for modern science to take shape was a renunciation of their bookish a priorism, with its Aristotelian notion that all things can be deduced by logical, abstract argument from (ultimately arbitrary) first principles.2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 51: