A priori

From EvaluationWiki

Literally, coming before, now meaning a fundamental assumption or truth that 'comes before' experience, i.e., is not the result of observation and experience (by contrast with a posterori truths that are based on experience. Mathematical theorems and definitional truths are the standard example of a priori truths but claims for that status have been made on behalf of many other assertions or ways of knowing, e.g., about the forms of experience, the nature or existence of God, and, the key examples for the evaluator, certain evaluative claims.