Principle

For the term in chemistry, see principle (chemistry).

Not to be confused with principal.

Principle in philosophy and mathematics means the fundamental law or assumption. The word "principle" is derived from Latin "principium" (beginning), translated by Cicero from Greek "arche" (ἀρχή; the beginning, the first principle).

Principle is fundamental in the sense that it generally cannot be derived from others, while laws and rules can. Greek philosophy began as the quest for the principles (arche), and each Pre-Socratic philosophers identified different element as the principle. Aristotle made the first comprehensive analysis of the principles, by which he could differentiate disciplines and fields. Principles, he argued, differ according to subject matter. For example, principles in practical fields such as politics and ethics, and those in exact sciences such as mathematics and logic are different. His studies of principles for why and how they should be differentiated led him to the division of sciences.

Quest for the principles: Pre-Socratics

Pre-Socratic philosophers, the firs philosophers in Greek philosophy, made a series of attempts to identify the fundamental principles (arche) which determined phenomena in the cosmos. Their quest for principles distinguishes philosophers from story tellers of Greek mythology. While their predecessors gave narrative explanation to the phenomena of the world, those philosophers consciously tried to find principles by which they could give consistent. coherent, and comprehensive account for the phenomena.

The earliest philosopher, Thales for example, identified "water" as the principle (arche) of the cosmos. Water is vital to all living beings, can take a form of gas (vapor), liquid (water), and solid (ice). He regarded all beings as modifications of one universal element. Euclid, a mathematician, identified certain postulates and axioms as the principles of mathematics, from which all other theorems and mathematical knowledge are derived. Principles were understood as the irreduceable beginning of all mathematical knowledge. In his "Geometry," hundreds of propositions can be deduced from a set of definitions, postulates, and common notions: all three of which constitute first principles. When certain principles are considered primordial, these principles are called "first principles."

Aristotle's analysis of principles

Aristotle is the first philosopher who examined the natures and types of principles ("arche") in the history of philosophy. He assessed his predecessors' perspectives, and made a comprehensive studies of the principles. Aristotle found different types of principles in different phenomena such as social, natural, logical, mathematical, and so on. The differences among principles became the foundation upon which he divide and classified subject matters and disciplines.

Aristotle further identified specific principles in each disciplines and subjects. In Metaphysics, for example, he identified God (in Aristotelian sense) as the first principle ("arche") of being, and various causal principles as the constitutive principles of all beings. In logic, he identified such formal principles as the principle of identity, principle of contradiction, and principle of the excluded middle.

Medieval Scholastics adopted Aristotle's definitions and works and developed them within Christian contexts.

The first principles in Modern Philosophy

Descartes attempted to find the first principle of philosophy upon the critique of Aristotelian Medial thoughts. He attempted a thought experiment of methodical doubt, and claimed the existence of thinking ego-self ("cogito") as the indubitable first principle upon which all other philosophical ideas can be established. (see Cogito ergo sum and methodic doubt)

Leibniz criticized Descartes, and identified such principles of metaphysics and logic as the principle of indiscernible, principle of sufficient reason, and others.

Principles in Chemistry

In modern chemistry, principles are the constituents of a substance, specifically those that produce a certain quality or effect in the substance, such as a bitter principle, which is any one of the numerous compounds having a bitter taste.

In pre-modern chemistry and alchemy, principles were the five fundamental substances believed to constitute all bodies. Three of these were called active or hypostatical principles: salt; sulfur, or oil; and spirit, or mercury. The salt was supposed to be the foundation of all savors; the sulfur, of odors; and the spirit, or mercury, of colors. The two passive or elementary principles were phlegm (or water), and earth (or caput mortuum).

Principle of Law

A principle of law is a codified philosophical statement ("principle"), which represents the core of a law as found in a constitution, in precedent, or else is interpreted to arise from either or both.

As most legal systems are nationalistic frameworks built upon a small core of legal concepts, jurisdiction and sovereignty often have bearing in making statements of principle. Legal conservatives may tend to be accordingly restricted or "practical" in their concept of a legal principle, while liberals tend to be more inclusive and universalist.

Laws

Laws in social sciences

Laws of economics are an attempt in modelization of economic behavior. Marxism criticized the belief in eternal "laws of economics", which it considered a product of the dominant ideology. It claimed that in fact, those so-called "laws of economics" were only the historical laws of capitalism, that is of a particular historical social formation. With the advent, in the 20th century, of the application of mathematical, statistical, and experimental techniques to economics, economic theory matured into a corpus of knowledge rooted in the scientific method rather than in philosophical argument.

Laws in physics

A physical law, scientific law, or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior. Empirical laws are typically conclusions based on repeated scientific experiments over many years, and which have become accepted universally within the scientific community. The production of a summary description of nature in the form of such laws is a fundamental aim of science.

Laws of nature are distinct from religious and civil law, and should not be confused with the concept of natural law. Nor should 'physical law' be confused with 'law of physics' - the term 'physical law' usually covers laws in other sciences (e.g. biology) as well.

Miscellaneous

Finally, the term "law" is sometimes applied to less rigorous ideas that may be interesting observations or relationships, practical or ethical guidelines (also called rules of thumb), and even humorous parodies of such laws.

Examples of scientific laws include Boyle's law of gases, conservation laws, Ohm's law, and others. Laws of other fields of study include Occam's razor as a principle of philosophy and Say's law in economics. Examples of observed phenomena often described as laws include the Titius-Bode law of planetary positions, Zipf's law of linguistics, Thomas Malthus's Principle of Population or Malthusian Growth Model, Moore's law of technological growth. Other laws are pragmatic and observational, such as the law of unintended consequences.

Some humorous parodies of such laws include adages such as Murphy's law and its many variants, and Godwin's Law of Internet conversations.

References

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• This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.
• "Principle." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. 1913.

See also

• Principled approach
• Law (principle)

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