Definition of "first principle" []

• A basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. (noun)

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• "In his book, Wealth and Poverty, which has acquired something of the status of a holy scripture in unfettered capitalist circles, Gilder writes: “The first principle is that in order to move up, the poor must not only work, they must work harder than the classes above them.”"
• "Heine's first principle of criticising a book was, What motive is the author trying to carry out, or express or accomplish? and the second, Has he achiev'd it?"
• "Plato envisaged a science, “dialec - tic,” which is superior to the mathematical sciences, because it takes their assumptions not as principles, but as hypotheses, using them as stepping stones for ascending to a single principle, not itself hypothetical, the first principle of everything, or the Form of the good."