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:
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)
“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 6:34.
From the Sermon on the Mount.
“To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don’t deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)