A posteriori is a Latin expression that can be translated as “of the posterior”. It is an adverbial phrase that refers to what is known after analyzing or reviewing an issue or that refers to a demonstration that is carried out going from the effect to the cause.
According to Abbreviationfinder, the idea of a posteriori appears linked to its opposite: a priori. A posteriori knowledge is related to experience since it is generated or obtained after accessing something. A priori knowledge, on the other hand, maintains a certain independence from experience because it is associated with the universal.
All trial conducted post is empirical and can be verified by experience. For example: “There are people who are redheads. ” This is a posteriori knowledge, which arises after observing an individual who has reddish-colored hair. The same can be said of expressions like “Not all cars are green” and “There are dogs that have long hair. ”
Unlike a posteriori knowledge, a priori knowledge does not need an investigation to demonstrate its veracity. “All parents have or had at least one child” is a priori knowledge: the fact of being a parent implies that, at some point, the person had a child, whether biological or adoptive.
The use of these and other Latin phrases generates diverse responses in people, since on the one hand there are those who very much enjoy including terms of foreign origin in their discourse, and on the opposite extreme are those who prefer cleaner communication, based entirely on in the language itself.
Since it is basically a matter of taste and opinion, it is not convenient to further fuel the fire that divides these two groups saying that one of them is wrong. However, when the desire to combine terms and expressions of different languages leads to one use incorrect or imprecise words, it becomes difficult to encourage this practice, since violates communication.
In other words, it is appropriate to ask ourselves what is the reason for using a posteriori and a priori, if we can choose their equivalents in Spanish. What is the benefit of this linguistic fusion, dangerous if any, based on the forced inclusion of foreign expressions that usually leads to pronunciation and spelling errors, as well as deformations due to lack of knowledge?
It is known that many people say roughly, modus operandis, modus vivendis, ipso facto and of their own motu, instead of grosso modo, modus operandi, modus vivendi, ipso facto and motu proprio, respectively. In this list we can see various errors, such as deformation of certain terms by similarity to others of our language (when we change own by itself), incorrect inclusion of prepositions (such as to and from) and the placement of an extra ‘s’ at the end of the second term (as in operandis and vivendis).
This shows us that venturing to include foreign terms in speech is not easy, since it requires very specific knowledge to do it accurately. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Castilian expressions to avoid any unnecessary mistakes. Let us look at two examples where a posteriori is dispensed with: «Do not rush to draw conclusions; it is preferable to do it in the end «, « Later, Arthur finally discovered the whole truth ».
“A posteriori”, finally, is the title of an album that Enigma released in 2006. The album, which garnered a Grammy Award nomination, includes twelve songs whose composer was Romanian-German Michael Cretu.
