abstract principle

The president and his aides often cite a somewhat abstract principle to make their case: that big countries ruled by autocrats should not be allowed to invade their neighbors and seize territory.

“To read the 14th Amendment to state an abstract principle of colorblindness is itself to be blind to history,” Brennan wrote.

For both Democrats and Republicans, the substance of these fights — on the climate, civil rights, religious freedom and more — tends to matter more than the abstract principle that not everything should be partisan.

But the hearings also repeatedly made clear that this was not about an abstract principle or a bad thing that happened in the past.

This is because such statements of abstract principle — like the liberal tradition from which they spring — neglect the concrete social norms necessary to facilitate and regulate the collective search for truth in college classrooms.