post remadj.adv.
/ˌpəʊs(t) ˈrɛm/, U.S. /ˌpoʊs(t) ˈrɛm/ Philosophy.
Used postpositively: subsequent to the existence of, or logically posterior to, something else. Also as adv.Chiefly used with reference to theories according to which universal concepts and terms logically presuppose particulars from which they are abstracted. Cf. ante rem adj., in re adv. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical classification > [adjective] > extending or universal > post rem
post rem1878
1878 Mind 3 522 Every universal is ante rem; Every cognition is post rem. In other words, every idea considered in itself is universal, necessary, immutable, and, as such, objective, independent of thought, and underived from sense: and on the other hand, no idea is innate—all are preceded by sense-perception.
1927 C. R. S. Harris Duns Scotus I. vi. 215 The distinction of the threefold aspect of the universal ante rem, in re, and post rem forms the starting-point of the epistemological theory of Scotus no less than that of Albert or Aquinas.
1931 S. Beckett Proust 60 The Baudelarian [sic] unity is a unity ‘post rem’, a unity abstracted from plurality.
1952 R. I. Aaron Theory of Universals xii. 218 Nevertheless it [sc. the quality ‘human’] is post rem and, to a certain degree, ‘the workmanship of the mind’.
1977 New Literary Hist. 8 185 All those who believe that cultural phenomena are superstructures of the economic relations governing production in society are nominalistic, since for them, culture exists post rem.
2000 Jrnl. Aesthetics & Art Crit. 58 351/1 The second quadrant, the extensional-collective modality, assumes the type of universal that the Scholastics termed post rem.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.adv.1878