prolepsis

noun /pɹoʊˈlɛpsɪs/

1. The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.

   countable, uncountable

2. The anticipation of an objection to an argument.

   countable, uncountable

   And wisely thus anticipates surprise.

   Prolepsis makes objections; then replies;

3. A construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.

   countable, uncountable

4. A so-called "preconception", i.e., a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.

   countable, uncountable

   Point (1) seems to imply that one may have a false judgement because of a mismatch between different criteria for truth. For example, my sensation is paired with a prolepsis of a horse, therefore I make an assertion that ‘there is a horse’, which upon further inspection may turn out to be a cow.

Where it comes from

From Latin prolepsis, from Ancient Greek πρόληψις (prólēpsis, “preconception, anticipation”), from προλαμβάνω (prolambánō, “take beforehand, anticipate”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry prolepsis (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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