Principles: The Principles of Principles
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In this article, I will argue for the actuality of principles. Principles are normative in that they regulate the relation of actuality and potentiality as well as operate across time, from the past and present to the future. They may also apply across space, that is, the same principle operates in different places in the same way, for example the laws of motion. Principles mean that change follows certain regularities. I will examine the modality of principles, their relation to pluralism. I will argue negatively for the principle of principles, that is, that the world actually exhibits or contains principles. I will then argue that principles as origins cannot be accounted for by ontology. Principles are neither material nor substantial beings but both of the latter presume, as generals or "universals," the actuality of principles. Thus principles could be considered in the category of "thirds" in Peirce. I will argue that principles also support James's model of a "pluralistic universe" of change.
I. What are Principles?
There are over five thousand articles in English listed in the Philosopher's Index that use the word "principle" from 1940 to the present. Yet surprisingly, almost none of these articles discuss the meaning of principles or their actuality!1 Nor are there any entries covering "principle" in some of the standard, recent encyclopedias of philosophy.2 This is a remarkable if not incredible situation. One would think that with all of the analyses of language going on that a technical term with such a widespread use—in metaphysics, logic, science, ethics, and esthetics—would have received at least some attention.3 It is only in the foreign literature, in Continental philosophy, that this most fundamental of all concepts has received suitable attention, and even there, only in certain circles.4 [End Page 98]
"Principle" has a great many meanings: origin, beginning, cause, rule, axiom, and so on.5 However, we cannot assume any necessary relation of these meanings. They may be distinct meanings without relations. Nevertheless we can trace some common roots and thereby interconnections of the meanings. I will concentrate here on certain meanings relevant to the principle of principles, that principles are actual. One meaning is that principles are the "ultimate source, origin, or cause of something" or the "originating or actuating agency or force." Principles are connected with the origin and cause of any "something." Moreover, principles may cause the actuality of the something. A second meaning of principles is that they regulate change, whether internally, as the "method of operation of a thing," or as an external cause. That is, principles are regulative, especially including rules for operations, involving changes. As rules, they are universal for a kind, although there may be exceptions to them in certain modes. A principle, then, is an originating rule that universally regulates the formation, operation, or other changes of any actuality, which as universal applies to that kind of thing. Machines may be built according to a principle and operate on the same or even a different principle. Ships presume the principle of floatation but may be built according to principles of woodworking or those of other materials. The principle can have different modes—whether necessary, as in logical inference; general, as in scientific laws; or actualization of possibilities, as in machines or as in moral principles that we follow, but could do otherwise.6 I will cover modes below.
Principles are also a cause as regulative, combining cause and rule. The principle can be external, as in a chemical catalyst; or internal, as in genetically caused changes.7 Both kinds of causes involve relations. Internal principles exhibit "tendencies," to borrow the word used in the dictionary. They continue to operate across time. Actions that come under principles may be of kinds whose causes are separate in time, since we may cease an action for a time and then take it up again; while genetic characteristics are tendencies whose causes are connected by reproduction. As causal, principles may be originary for a kind. Especially in new technologies, for example, flying machines, the principle that organisms could fly (birds, bats, and insects) preceded the invention...
