first principles

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Ilyse Hogue: I go back to first principles on a lot of the projects that I work on.

From Slate • May 18, 2026

“We have to get back to first principles, basic issues, of auditing,” Atkins said at a conference in December.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

But sometimes the most important work is simply clearing the debris, removing the judicial inventions that cloud the text, and returning to first principles.

From Slate • Jun. 5, 2025

She argued that the Conservatives needed to take the time to go back to first principles and work out what the government should and should not do.

From BBC • May 28, 2025

Aristotelian philosophy had been based on the idea that one ought to be able to deduce sciences from generally accepted first principles, so that all science would be comparable to geometry.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton