“Are principles actually that important or are they just a fancy concept people like to throw around to sound intellectual?”
We often hear people talk about principles and how important it is to have them, however few ever pause to think about why they might be so crucial in a person’s life.
But, are principles actually that important or are they just a fancy concept people like throwing around to sound intellectual?
The short answer is yes, principles are more important than most people think. If you take your life and your future seriously, you need principles to guide you. Having strong, well-defined principles is one of the best ways to improve one’s life because they enable you to find long-range solutions to tough problems.
So if you’re looking for an effective tool to help you navigate life, keep reading.
What Are Principles
According to the dictionary, a principle is “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.”
So, a principle is a fundamental truth. The issue is that principles can vary a lot from person to person depending on their philosophy of life, their upbringing, and their experiences, which mean there is such a thing as having the wrong principles.
For instance, a person can live by the principle that “happiness is the most important thing in life.” But there might be someone else who thinks that “family is the most important thing in life.” So those two people are going to approach life’s problems very differently. The first person is going to prioritize her own happiness, while the other one is going to prioritize their family’s needs and wants over their own happiness.
Side note: there is a world in which looking out for your family’s needs and achieving your happiness go hand in hand, but that depends entirely on how valuable your family is to you and how much it contributes to your happiness. However, for some people whose family is toxic and unsupportive, having to choose between their own happiness and their family is a reality.
Principles Help You Have High Standards for Yourself
Now, how can you use principles to help you in life? By using them as tools to deal with difficult situations. For instance, if you are in a romantic relationship and you believe that “a loving relationship should be based on mutual respect” but your partner yells at you and makes fun of your opinions, then you can use the principle of “respect in a relationship” to assess if this relationship is good for you or not. Maybe you are very much in love with your partner, but the reality is that they do not live up to your principle of what a good relationship should be---in that case you would know that you need do something about it.
Use Principles to Test the Validity of Your Beliefs
In addition, one of the biggest advantages about having strong principles is that they can help you discover errors in your thinking, and they can even make you rethink some of your strongest beliefs, which may actually be detrimental for your life.
For instance, let’s say you believe “private property should be respected,” but you are someone that supports bigger taxes on the wealthy. In that case, you can think about the principle “private property should be respected” and see if it fits your view on taxes. In this case, some would argue that if you believe in private property but you support taxes, then there is a contraction in your thinking that you need to address.
Perhaps your stance regarding private property should change, perhaps you don’t think private property is that important after all. Or perhaps you realize that the principle of respecting private property is actually very important to you, which means you need to reevaluate your stance on taxes.
Now, let’s say you believe “everything in life has a scientific explanation” but you also believe in astrology. In this case you need to ask yourself; if you really believe that there is a scientific explanation for everything, should you still believe in astrology? Perhaps you need to reevaluate your principle because the reality is that you don’t believe everything has a scientific explanation. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe you realize that your strong belief in science makes you question the mysticism of astrology.
How to Find Your Principles if You Don’t Know What They Are
However, if you don’t know what your principles are, you can take a close look at some of your views about certain things to discover what your principles are.
For instance, if you agree with the government shutting down restaurants during the pandemic, then you can work backward from that and ask yourself if you agree with the principle that “the government should decide what people can and can’t do.”
Because if you agree with that principle, you are also accepting the fact that the government should decide what you can and can’t do, not just what others can and can’t do. In that case you can do some thinking and decide if that is really a principle you stand by.
And by the way, I believe restaurant owners would take extra precautions on their own to protect their workers and their patrons, even if the government didn’t legally force them to do so.
Now back to principles.
Principles Help You Improve Personal Relationships
Perhaps one of your “relationship principles” is that you strongly believe that “showing affection is imperative in a relationship.” But your partner barely ever kisses you or tries to give you a hug, and naturally that makes you feel bad. However, If you think about the principle of affection then you can do something about your problem to get the type of relationship you want.
And that doesn’t mean immediately to break up with your girlfriend, but standing up for your principles can give you the courage to communicate your needs. In this case, you would tell your partner “hey, I’ve noticed you rarely hug me or kiss me, and affection is very important to me, is this something we can work on?” Communicating your needs is key, because maybe your partner did show you affection, but she or he didn’t want you to feel smothered, so that’s why they held back, but now that they know how you feel, they’ll match your level of affection, and now your problem is solved. Or maybe they tell you they don't want to be affectionate and they don’t care how you feel about it--well now that you know their stance, you can decide if this a person you want to keep around or not.
Having strong principles help us stand up for ourselves and communicate our needs to others, which in turn, help us get closer to achieving the type of life and the type of relationships we want to have.
Ayn Rand’s definition of principles provides further insight on why it is so important to have them:
“A principle is ‘a fundamental, primary, or general truth, on which other truths depend.’
Thus a principle is an abstraction which subsumes a great number of concretes. It is only by means of principles that one can set one’s long-range goals and evaluate the concrete alternatives of any given moment. It is only principles that enable a man to plan his future and to achieve it.”(1)
It is only principles that enable a man to plan his future and to achieve it. This means that if you have the wrong principles or destructive principles, you are going to end up with a bad future. So really think about what you stand for, and what you want for your life.
Now Go and Get Yourself Some Principles
Having principles is going to help you figure out your way through life. If you are not sure what your principles are, be sure to spend some time thinking about it because they’re imperative for decision-making.
References:
[1] Rand, A., 1986. “The Anatomy of Compromise,” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p.144.
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