"a potiori" - A phrase no enlish dictionary gives any explaination, help!!!

Question

If there's anybody who can help me out of this - in the following sentence, the explaination of "a potiori" cannot be found in any dictionary i could get my hands on:

"So very characteristic is this feature of private law that one a a potiori designate the contemporary type of society, to the extent that private law obtains, as a 'contractual' one."

p.s. this sentence comes from a book of Max Weber.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Well, your sentence seems to have more wrong with it than just the Latin-- either you have transcribed it inaccurately or the printer has done so. I presume that what is meant is either a priori or a posteriori.

Hoa Thai · Answer

Mister MicawberWell, your sentence seems to have more wrong with it than just the Latin-- either you have transcribed it inaccurately or the printer has done so. I presume that what is meant is either a priori or a posteriori.

Dear Micawber,

It is potiori for sure. The sentence that contains the word can be found in "A Neo-Weberian Theory of the Firm - Heugens Organization Studies.2005; 26: 547-567", a PDF file addressing organization studies. The sentence is shown via Google search using "potiori Max Weber" string.

I also found this:

"A potiori means most important, that is, it is believed that the narration conveyed is the group of the most important phenomena through which a particular ..." - Intimacy and Science: The Publication of Clinical Facts.

Besides that, I cannot offer more. Sorry!

Hoa Thai

http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=IJP.075.1251A

Marius Hancu · Answer

Right, most important, (most) essential (Latin):

-----
The word "Vocationist" is also a term strictly Justinian; it means
expert, specialist of vocation. In the scholastic philosophy, we
learned that denominatio fit a potiori (i.e., the denomination is
deduced from the principal part); therefore, our name indicates the
most essential part of our existence (Why is it so hard for us to add
our initial "S.D.V." to our name?).

http://www.vocationist.org/Letters%20of%20Father%20General/Letters%20of%20Father%20Louis/Lent2007.htm
-------

Francesca · Answer

Hello,

in a Latin-Italian dictionary I found this:
a potiori: from a more valid point of view

I don't know if it helps though.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Sorry for misleading you, Anon. I suffer from hubris on occasion, not thinking beyond myself and my dictionary. Nevertheless, I sense something wrong with the sentence structure. You have:

'that one a a potiori designate the contemporary type of society'

if I substitute 'from a more valid point of view' or 'most important', I get:

'that one a from a more valid point of view designate the contemporary type of society'
or
'that one a most important designate the contemporary type of society'

I cannot figure out the grammar or the meaning... but then maybe I am just not up to the Neo-Weberian Theory. Thank goodness I already have a good job.

Hoa Thai · Answer

Apparently, a small difference shows up with the version that I got. Here it is:

-----------------------------------------
“In his discussion of the distinctive elements of modern law Max Weber echoes Locke’s description. “So very characteristic is this feature of private law that one can a potiori designate the contemporary type of society to the extent that private law obtains, as a contractual one.” ” - (“Contract Out: GLBT Marriage and Citizenship” by Elizabeth Cohen, The ).

www.maxwell.syr.edu/campbell/SLAPP/Papers/SLAPP 03-04/Cohen.pdf
-----------------------------------------

Please note that potiori is preceded with a and both are italicized. I don't know Latin/Spanish; however, I think the two of them can act together as an adverb and the sentence is fine, grammatically.

Yankee · Answer

Good find, Hoa Thai.
The typo in the original post (a instead of can) certainly made things difficult to interpret.

Anonymous · Answer

No, it is not wrong, nor is it a misspelling of a posteriori or a priori.  I've encountered it also, in Freud, and my notes seem to say that it means "mosot important" or "most importantly."  I can't be 100% that it's correct, but it's in the notes I have from my Masters class, so hopefully it helps you (I also looked on the internet and was unable to find anything).

Anonymous · Answer

As a matter of fact, it means "from the best (the most important) part"

Anonymous · Answer

I have met this expression only in psychopathology, where stablishing a diagnosis "a potiori", means that, if a person is 80% phobic, 10% obsessive-compulsive, and 10% hysterical, you call him "phobic", and that's it.  From which I would infer that doing something "a potiori" means that you are using some kind of simplification in which you pick up the major characteristic of something and pay no regard to the remaining ones.  This kind of simplification, of course, can be sometimes very handy and sometimes lead to significant mistakes...  I would dare to hypothetize that Weber, in the quoted passage, is pointing to some misunderstanding stemming form such kind of "a potiori" approach.

"a potiori" - A phrase no enlish dictionary gives any explaination, help!!!

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