Essay on First Principles

"The following Essay on First Principles is shown by its very title to be metaphysical. Every science indeed has its first principles, but then they are the principles of that particular science. First Principles, absolutely so called, must belong to a science which precedes the subdivision of sciences, and which contains objects and laws which it distributes to all other branches of learning. By First Principles are here meant not only those axioms and elementary propositions, which naturally approve themselves to all, such as the principle of contradiction in speculation, and the maxim that good is to be done and evil avoided in practice, which indeed form a special subject of the following consideration ; but by First Principles in their wider sense, are here understood the whole foundations and sources of Truth, whether they consist in the existence of faculties, or in the operations of simple apprehension, judgments, and deductions. The proper end however of this essay is to show what foundations of truth are to be accepted instead of the postulates of Ontology and Idealism...." Digitized by Google.