This paper challenges the standard a priori/a posteriori distinction by looking at statements
in which comprehension requires more that merely passive awareness of objects and their
properties. A proposal is made to add to (not to supplant) the traditional categories of
knowledge, the “a positio,” characterized by active, intentional, and collective involvement
of language users in the existence and nature of objects of reference needed for the truth of
statements about various kinds of artifacts, broadly construed. The conditions of
understanding statements about institutions, institutional activity and standards of
measurement are considered in some detail.
