Principle — ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French, from Latin principium ‘source,’ principia (plural) ‘foundations,’ from princeps, princip– ‘first, chief.’

A principle comes first, or it is not a principle.

A principle might be an articulation of what is already coming first, a naming of an instinctive motive. Or it can be imposed and made to precede action, in the form of a law. (These two should be kept distinct. If one behaved instinctively, one should remember it and not pretend one was following a code.) The best principles are between instinctive motive and law — the cultivation of an instinct or a constellation of instincts into a disciplined force.

Too often however, principles are added last as justifications for unjustified behavior. It is usually easy to find some principle or another to self-interpret actions as moral. The unprincipled nature of such actions and interpretations come out only in examining and comparing how one applies principles in judging one’s own and other’s actions. Is the application of the principle consistent from moment to moment and person to person? Is the memory constant, or does the story change?