First Principles
E36048
First Principles is a foundational philosophical work by Herbert Spencer that outlines his synthetic philosophy, attempting to unify knowledge across the sciences, metaphysics, and ethics.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| First Principles canonical | 5 |
| First Principles (Herbert Spencer) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T277077 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: First Principles Context triple: [Herbert Spencer, notableWork, First Principles]
-
A.
Occam's razor
Occam's razor is a philosophical and scientific principle that advises preferring the simplest explanation that adequately accounts for all observed facts.
-
B.
Science of Logic
Science of Logic is a foundational philosophical work by G.W.F. Hegel that systematically develops his dialectical method and metaphysical account of concepts, being, and reality.
-
C.
Aristotelian physics
Aristotelian physics is the pre-modern natural philosophy based on Aristotle’s ideas about motion and the elements, which dominated Western thought until it was displaced by the new mechanics of the Scientific Revolution.
-
D.
Cartesianism
Cartesianism is the philosophical system developed by René Descartes, centered on rationalism, mind–body dualism, and the use of methodical doubt to establish certain knowledge.
-
E.
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is a foundational philosophical work by Immanuel Kant that concisely outlines and defends the key ideas of his critical philosophy, especially those developed more fully in the Critique of Pure Reason.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: First Principles Target entity description: First Principles is a foundational philosophical work by Herbert Spencer that outlines his synthetic philosophy, attempting to unify knowledge across the sciences, metaphysics, and ethics.
-
A.
Occam's razor
Occam's razor is a philosophical and scientific principle that advises preferring the simplest explanation that adequately accounts for all observed facts.
-
B.
Science of Logic
Science of Logic is a foundational philosophical work by G.W.F. Hegel that systematically develops his dialectical method and metaphysical account of concepts, being, and reality.
-
C.
Aristotelian physics
Aristotelian physics is the pre-modern natural philosophy based on Aristotle’s ideas about motion and the elements, which dominated Western thought until it was displaced by the new mechanics of the Scientific Revolution.
-
D.
Cartesianism
Cartesianism is the philosophical system developed by René Descartes, centered on rationalism, mind–body dualism, and the use of methodical doubt to establish certain knowledge.
-
E.
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is a foundational philosophical work by Immanuel Kant that concisely outlines and defends the key ideas of his critical philosophy, especially those developed more fully in the Critique of Pure Reason.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ |
| addresses |
foundations of ethics
ⓘ
limits of human knowledge ⓘ relationship between science and metaphysics ⓘ |
| aim |
to establish a basis for ethics in evolutionary principles
ⓘ
to provide a unified system of knowledge ⓘ to reconcile science and religion ⓘ |
| author | Herbert Spencer ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
law of evolution
ⓘ
persistence of force ⓘ relativity of knowledge ⓘ The Unknowable ⓘ
surface form:
the Unknowable
|
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| firstEditionFormat | single volume ⓘ |
| genre |
epistemology
ⓘ
ethics ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ philosophy ⓘ |
| hasOCLCNumber | 2216744 ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Laws of the Knowable
ⓘ
The Unknowable ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | Victorian era ⓘ |
| influenced |
Anglo-American philosophy
ⓘ
late 19th-century positivism ⓘ social Darwinism ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte
ⓘ
surface form:
Auguste Comte
Charles Darwin ⓘ John Stuart Mill ⓘ evolutionary theory ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
evolutionary theory in philosophy
ⓘ
metaphysical principles ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ synthetic philosophy ⓘ unification of knowledge ⓘ |
| notableIdea |
application of evolutionary principles to cosmology
ⓘ
application of evolutionary principles to ethics ⓘ application of evolutionary principles to society ⓘ systematic synthesis of scientific knowledge into philosophy ⓘ |
| partOf | Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy ⓘ |
| philosophicalSchool |
evolutionary philosophy
ⓘ
positivism ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1862 ⓘ |
| publisher | Williams and Norgate ⓘ |
| structure | divided into two main parts ⓘ |
| title | First Principles self-link ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: First Principles Description of subject: First Principles is a foundational philosophical work by Herbert Spencer that outlines his synthetic philosophy, attempting to unify knowledge across the sciences, metaphysics, and ethics.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
The Principles of Psychology (Spencer)
this entity surface form:
First Principles (Herbert Spencer)