First Principle
In mathematics, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates. Gödel's incompleteness theorems have been taken to prove, among other things, that no system of axioms that describe the set of natural numbers can prove its own validity - nor perhaps can it prove every truth about the natural numbers.
In philosophy, a first principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.
Read more about First Principle: First Principles in Formal Logic, Aristotle's Contribution, Descartes, In Physics
Famous quotes containing the word principle:
“I sincerely believe ... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)