What is a Principle (Definition)?

One place we need to start in our discussion if AA principles is to try to get clear about what a principle really is.  What is the difference between a “principle” and a really good idea?  What’s the difference between principle and a great truth?  …a cliche or slogan?

Dictionary.com defines a “principle” from it’s several sources as:

1. an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct: a person of good moral principles.
2. a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived: the principles of modern physics.
3. a fundamental doctrine or tenet; a distinctive ruling opinion: the principles of the Stoics.
4. principles, a personal or specific basis of conduct or management: to adhere to one’s principles; a kindergarten run on modern principles.
5. guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct: a person of principle.
6. an adopted rule or method for application in action: a working principle for general use.
7. a rule or law exemplified in natural phenomena, the construction or operation of a machine, the working of a system, or the like: the principle of capillary attraction.
8. the method of formation, operation, or procedure exhibited in a given case: a community organized on the patriarchal principle.
9. a determining characteristic of something; essential quality.
10. an originating or actuating agency or force: growth is the principle of life.
11. an actuating agency in the mind or character, as an instinct, faculty, or natural tendency: the principles of human behavior.
12. Chemistry: a constituent of a substance, esp. one giving to it some distinctive quality or effect.
    

    —Idioms:

13. in principle: in essence or substance; fundamentally: to accept a plan in principle.
14. on principle:td>according to personal rules for right conduct; as a matter of moral principle:
    1. He refused on principle to agree to the terms of the treaty.
    2. according to a fixed rule, method, or practice: He drank hot milk every night on principle.

prin·ci·ple

1. A basic truth, law, or assumption: the principles of democracy.
2. A rule or standard, especially of good behavior: a man of principle.
3. The collectivity of moral or ethical standards or judgments: a decision based on principle rather than expediency.
4. A fixed or predetermined policy or mode of action.
5. A basic or essential quality or element determining intrinsic nature or characteristic behavior: the principle of self-preservation.
6. A rule or law concerning the functioning of natural phenomena or mechanical processes: the principle of jet propulsion.
7. Chemistry One of the elements that compose a substance, especially one that gives some special quality or effect.
8. A basic source. See Usage Note at principal.

Principle

principle

1. A basic truth, law, or assumption.
2. A rule or law concerning the functioning of natural phenomena or mechanical processes.
3. One of the elements composing a chemical compound, especially one that gives some special quality or effect.
4. The essential ingredient in a drug.

prin·ci·ple
1 : a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, orassumption
2 : an ingredient (as a chemical) that exhibits or imparts a characteristic quality principle of a drug>

Principle

Prin”ci*ple\, n. [F. principe, L. principium beginning, foundation, fr. princeps, -cipis. See Prince.]1. Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. –Spenser. 2. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause. The soul of man is an active principle. –Tillotson. 3. An original faculty or endowment. Nature in your principles hath set [benignity]. –Chaucer. Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering. –Stewart. 4. A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. –Heb. vi. 1. A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad. –Milton. 5. A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one’s actions; as, a person of no principle. All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind. –Law. 6. (Chem.) Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; — applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc. Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna. –Gregory. Bitter principle, Principle of contradiction, etc. See under Bitter, Contradiction, etc.