What does Kant mean by "a priori"?

Overview: In the usual sense, it is understood as opposed to "experience," meaning that which precedes experience but is indispensable to constitute it. However, this concept involves a discussion of fundamental issues in modern Western philosophy, and there are subtle differences in the meaning of the word in different contexts.

Since the line of development of transcendental begins not only with its namesake, Kant, but also with the modern European philosophical tradition that has been at work since Descartes and is still at work today, an understanding of it is also relevant to an understanding of the fundamental problems of modern Western philosophy as a whole.

For the sake of caution, we have listed several philosophers who have had an important influence on the development of this concept, and their influence and development, so as to describe as much as possible the inheritance and change of this concept in the history of philosophical thought, so as to enable us to fully and accurately understand its meaning and to make a judgment on its meaning and understanding according to the context of the words used.

Meaning in Sutra Philosophy

The a priori in Sutra Philosophy means the supercategory. The a priori specification of existence denotes the universal, supersensible, character of existence as recognized by perception before all experience.

Meaning in general concepts

In Kantian philosophy, opposed to "experience". Meaning is prior to experience, but indispensable for constituting it.

Kant believed that the objective material world can only give people a pile of disordered sensory material, and the composition of knowledge depends on the use of the human mind inherent in the "innate form" to process and organize, so the innate form and the acquired experience is the fundamental elements of knowledge.