Abstract

FOR PLATO, PRINCIPLES WERE THE ROOT-SOURCE of being or of knowledge. For Aristotle, they were the “first cause” of being, of becoming, or of being known. Much the same conception is at issue in Thomas of Aquinas, for whom a principle was something primary in the being of a thing, or in its becoming, or in knowledge of it. As standard philosophical usage has evolved in the light of these ideas, a principle is as something basic—as a fundamentum or archê. It either admits no proof or it needs not proof. Moreover, it must be abstract by way of applying to a broad range of cases. Thus, all concerned seem agreed that principles are fundamental generalities governing our understanding of the modus operandi of some knowledge-accessible domain.