What is the difference between obviate and preclude?

[doctorfate]

1
Source: dictionary.com

OBVIATE: to anticipate and prevent or eliminate (difficulties, disadvantages, etc.) by effective measures; render unnecessary:

PRECLUDE: to prevent the presence, existence, or occurrence of; make impossible:

EXAMPLES:

OBVIATE: A peaceful solution would obviate the need to send a UN military force.
Obtaining a doctorate, he noted, is perhaps the best way to obviate that time-consuming and sometimes insurmountable problem.

PRECLUDE:
His contract precludes him from discussing his work with anyone outside the company.
The fact that your application was not successful this time does not preclude the possibility of you applying again next time.

Both terms allude to the notion of "actions taken in order to prevent a certain thing or outcome from occurring" However I get the feeling that obviate isn't necesssarily about preventing but rather making something unnecessary (I'm not sure which part is rendered unnecessary: the means taken or the impending doom that's likely to happen). Whereas preclude is about only the preventing. If there are any errors in my analysis of these two terms, please do not hesitate to let me know.

 

[jutfrank]

You can think of 'obviate' as meaning 'get rid of'. So in your example, obtaining a doctorate will get rid of the problem.

If you obviate the need to do something, then yes, the action becomes unnecessary, but obviating isn't necessarily about needs. You can obviate needs, problems, uncertainties, difficulties, etc.