The principle of sufficient reason states that nothing is without a ground or reason why it is. The principle is usually attributed to Leibniz, although the first person to use it was Anaximander of Miletus. Also Alexander R. Pruss argued the principle of sufficient reason relating with "ex nihilo nihil fit".
Read more about Principle Of Sufficient Reason: Formulation, Leibniz's View, As A Law of Thought, Schopenhauer's Four Forms
Famous quotes containing the words principle of, principle, sufficient and/or reason:
“From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.”
—Cardinal John Henry Newman (18011890)
“Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past.”
—David Hume (17111776)
“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.”
—Kahlil Gibran (18831931)
“No people require maxims so much as the American. The reason is obvious: the country is so vast, the people always going somewhere, from Oregon apple valley to boreal New England, that we do not know whether to be temperate orchards or sterile climate.”
—Edward Dahlberg (19001977)