The Review of Metaphysics, September 1st, 2002
I FOR PLATO, PRINCIPLES WERE THE ROOT-SOURCE (archai) of being or of knowledge. (1) For Aristotle, they were the "first cause" of being, of becoming, or of being known (hothen he estin he gignetai he gignosketai). (2) Much the same conception is at issue in Thomas of Aquinas, for whom a principle (principium) was something primary in the being of a thing, or in its becoming, or in knowledge of it (quod est primum aut in esse rei ... aut in fieri rei, ... aut in rei cognitione). (3) As standard philosophical usage has evolved in the light of these ideas, a principle is as something basic--as a...
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