Live Chat

Principles are, in a broad sense, simply rule-sets which we follow. Our understanding of the world around us is largely shaped by the core principles which we have accepted. Principles recognize what is true and help us apply truth to new or unknown situations. Principles are the fundamental underlying truths and beliefs that form the foundation of our knowledge and values and guide our action. Everything can be reduced to a set of principles or rules or official and unofficial laws or guidelines.

Once a person has confirmed a good set of principles with the help of accumulated knowledge, and a good order for those principles they will have the equivalent of a masters’ guide to life. Given our resources, we can stand on the shoulders’ of giants with the winds of history at our back. We should have a series of first principles to check a series of second principles against and then a third. In doing this, we can unveil answers to questions that would be obscured to a less principled explorer.

Combining principles, reason, and willpower can give you masterful insight into both new and old subjects and moral as well as practical ones. Ideally, we can weed out weakly justified pseudo-philosophy, but there is no accounting for tastes so we have a conversation about judgment calls and justice.

A practical first principle may be something as simple as "don’t drink and drive," with a second principle being, "having just one drink and waiting an hour doesn’t count as drinking and driving."In other words, principles are just rule sets based on morals, ethics, science, and common sense. For another example, the moral principles of "being fair" and "seeking happiness for one’s self and others" are some of the guiding first principles of moral philosophy and utilitarianism. By adhering to this rule set, and checking all else against it, we help ensure correctness in our actions.

That is how principles should work—principles are sets of uncompromising truths that provide us with tools for evaluating thought and action. Principles, because they are based on truth, are universal and can be applied without exceptions. A good set of principles will enable us to make decisions very quickly, even if the situation we are facing is completely new.

It’s a lot like learning how to read. Some of us were taught how to read by memorizing words. Once we have memorized a good number of words, we can read away happily, until we come across an unknown word. We don’t know what to do with it. We’ve never seen it before, and have no tools for discovering its meaning. On the other hand, some are taught to read by phonetics. You learn the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. By itself, this information seems useless—but when you sit down to read, you can slowly sound out each word. You may have never seen the word before, yet the foundation you were given enables you to move forward, with great accuracy.

Unfortunately, as important as they are, we often do not take much care in forming our guiding principles. But it is essential that we build a set of principles that are solid and true, in every aspect of life. Only then will we be able to discern what to do in a struggling relationship, how to handle trials at work, and what government and economic policies should be passed next.