Now I would like to turn my (and your) attention to the notion of a principle-centered life. In order to do so, I must first define what I mean by “principle” and it’s simply this: a rule that governs my actions. There are plenty of synonyms such as mores, laws, and traditions. What I don’t mean are habits. And I generally don’t include self-interest, although Gordon Gecko certainly makes a good argument to call it a principle.
There are plenty of ways principles show up in our lives. They are not the exclusive domain of religious people, either. Joss Whedon, an avowed atheist, once said that atheists have an even greater imperative to live by principles since they don’t have their principles given to them (and I’m paraphrasing that). While I don’t necessarily agree with him about the magnitude of principle-centered living that an atheist does vs. a religious person, it did give me food for thought. What does it mean to live by a principle?
It should be noted that principles are slightly different than values. Values are generally the basis for a principle. For example, I value cleanliness, so I have a principle that I take a shower every day. You can get into an argument about which causes which. Do people salute the flag because the respect it, or do people respect the flag because they salute it? I believe it can go both ways. Things which we persist in doing can cause us to value those things, and things that we value can cause us to create a rule.
Principles help us make decisions. You can think of them as shortcuts. As with the above shower example, I take one whether or not I think I need one. Perhaps I don’t need one because I didn’t get dirty, or perhaps I do because, although clean, I can’t sense my own body odor. Regardless of what I might think about a situation, my principle cuts out the rationalization and I submit to a shower.
Principles are not always rational. For example, my sister-in-law has a principle where she will not allow herself to touch another person’s wedding ring if they offer it to her directly. (Apparently this is a common superstition where she is from.) They must first put it down and she will pick it up. The purpose here is the irrational idea that touching it directly will somehow cause the marriage to sour and cause a divorce. The value is good (a sound marriage), but the principle itself is faulty. (At least to me it is.) Such is the way of most superstitions; they spring out of good intentions but have no logical connection.
Principles can also be good, but based on a less than noble value. For example, my daughter learned how to go to the bathroom by being bribed with candy. Her value of candy was greater than her value not to wet her pants. If suddenly she were to devalue candy, what would happen to her principle? It would become hollow and probably soon disappear. Other times there are principles that have no value at all – just the skeletons of a forgotten value. These often take the form of hollow tradition. Take for example “knocking on wood”. Society has largely forgotten why we do this: it is to make noise so the devil won’t hear what we’re planning and interfere. But we keep on doing this. I’m sure there are plenty of other principles you can think of that are based on little or no value.
Principles can also be bad. Take racism for example. It is a bad value based on faulty logic and a bad principle that builds out of it. Most prejudice falls into this category. They are rules that govern our behavior and eliminate decision making. In this case, having principles may not be such a good thing.
Principles, as stated before, are not the domain of only the religious. They are just as important to moral relativists. They are stakes in the ground that we plant and say this is where I will build my character. They form the basis of our moral compass. The difference between atheists and theists is that the theists believe that their principles are established for them pointing north, while atheists are left alone to choose north for themselves. I'll let the reader decide which is better. It should be pointed out, however, that if a religious person doesn't examine their God-given principles and create an underlying value, they will whither away. Where we don’t have principles, the ground is always shifting and each encounter is subject to either our thought process or our appetites. In some cases, that may be a good thing, such as when we meet new people. Instead of judging them out of our principles (read prejudice), we should judge them on their own merit. However, the world is too complex for us to judge every situation and so some principles should be established to guide our actions in certain situations so that we can focus what free processing capacity we have on those issues that are too new or important to have a principle. And on occasion, we should check our principles to see if they are in keeping with our values and having the desired effect. We should reflect on whether they are based on real values or simply the remainder of something now past.
Personally, I am evaluating my values and seeing if they line up with my principles. I see a lot of behavior that is simply be guided by my appetites, which are fickle and can lead to inconsistent behavior. In those cases, I’m looking to see if it is significant and whether it violates some of my values. And I’m looking at my behavior to see if new principles need to be established or re-emphasized to myself because I believe that a principle-centered life will lead me to less personal stress, more adherence to my values, and an easier overall existence.
