Vocabularium

Friday February 16, 2007 at 9:02 am

This is how I tend to view the world.  It’s a major reason I’m not fond of religion.

a posteriori (a pos·te·ri·o·ri): / ay poh steer ee OHR ee / (always italicized)
adjective, adverb

(1) deriving knowledge from facts and experience, and from reasoning based on observed causes and effects; inductive; empirical
(2) justified or knowable by experience only

[From Latin a posteriori meaning "from the latter, from what comes later."]

Usage: Unlike the belief that some voodoo-wielding bearded guy in the sky waved his fairy’s wand and created all life, evolution offers an a posteriori explanation that not only fits the facts, but successfully predicts similar phenomena by way of various evolutionary mechanisms.


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