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Wednesday 8 October 2014

Concise Standard Dictionary of the English Language

the source or origin of anything;...a general truth or law
comprehending many subordinate ones;...tenet or doctrine; a settled law or rule of
action;...to impress with any tenet; to establish firmly in the mind".
In this Millennium, perhaps more than ever before, I firmly believe that we need to
reformulate a set of principles to guide us. There are two main benefits of taking

  principle centric approach to guide all human action: knowing a set of principles

concerning 'the nature of things' enables us to make informed choices and judgments
as we would know, with a high degree of certainty, the likely outcomes of our actions,
knowing even a few principles helps us avoid information overload. On the latt
Before you raise your voice in protest, "What do scientific principles have to do with
informing what constitutes ethical and moral human behaviour?" Stop for a moment
and ponder the what has been institutionalised into Western society all in the name
extolling the virtue of progress through unencumbered evolution - i.e. guided by the
principles made evident by Charles Darwin. We push for free trade; level playing
fields, argue that cloning interferes with natural selection, push for de-regulation so
that competition prevails and only the fit organisations should survive, etc., etc.
But what if we've got Darwin wrong? What if the principles instead were: survival of
those who cooperate for the greater good, selection guided by a
moral sense, etc. We
would have a completely different society from that which we have today.
Understanding and internalising the principles that comprise 'the nature of things'
is perhaps the single most powerful determining factor in the shaping of the society
in which we live
. It is vital that we maintain a continual dialogue around principles so
those we internalise and institutionalise are up-to-date and are our current best shot at
the truth.

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