antecedently

My thought is that religion can serve in amplifying and directing a commitment to previously accepted values: so, for example, if you are antecedently committed to relieving human suffering and to promoting equal opportunities, you may find particular parts of the Gospels inspiring.

Michael Ruse: The Quest For Inclusion in the Science and Religion Debate Michael Ruse 2010

The opinion that the name Jahveh was adopted by the Jews from the Chanaanites, has been defended … but has been rejected … It is antecedently improbable that Jahveh, the irreconcilable enemy of the Chanaanites, should be originally a Chanaanite god …

jhvh is the enemy of god and man 2009

Reason does of course play a role in our moral life, but only as helping to guide us to an end antecedently determined by affection, in particular the affection of universal benevolence.

Scottish Philosophy in the 18th Century Broadie, Alexander 2009

Since nothing is ever present to the mind but perceptions, and since all ideas are deriv'd from something antecedently present to the mind, it follows, that 'tis impossible for us so much as to conceive or form an idea of any thing specifically different from ideas and impressions.

David Hume Morris, William Edward 2009

The notion of a sound deductive argument is (arguably) relatively clear (or at least something that can be regarded as antecedently understood from the point of view of characterizing scientific explanation).

Scientific Explanation Woodward, James 2009

For either (a) a bestowal itself cannot be justified (as on Singer's account), in which case the justification of love is impossible, or (b) a bestowal can be justified, in which case it is hard to make sense of value as being bestowed rather than there antecedently in the object as the grounds of that

Love Helm, Bennett 2009

Unlike the first three types of sameness, being “of a kind” entails that things are antecedently similar

Mohist Canons Fraser, Chris 2009

If one is antecedently committed to empiricism, it may seem a manifestation of the appropriately intimate connection between the aesthetic character of a work and the value of the experience that the work affords.

The Concept of the Aesthetic Shelley, James 2009

The premisses must be the causes of the conclusion, better known than it, and prior to it; its causes, since we possess scientific knowledge of a thing only when we know its cause; prior, in order to be causes; antecedently known, this antecedent knowledge being not our mere understanding of the meaning, but knowledge of the fact as well.

Locke's Philosophy of Science Kochiras, Hylarie 2009

Both projects attempt to ground moral principles in the social contract, but the Lockean one does so by appealing to the antecedently given obligation to honor agreements, while the Hobbesian project attempts to explain the duty of fidelity itself, as one of a piece with other moral principles, in terms of the social contract.

Transport: a Flash-Fiction Triptych 2009