The present book is a natural outgrowth of Rescher s longstanding preoccupation with the
rational systematization of our knowledge as manifested in such earlier works as Cognitive
Systematization (Oxford: Blackwell 1979) and Complexity (New Brunswick: Transaction
Publishers 1998). Accordingly the role of principles in human affairs is crucial and
ubiquitous. Principology the theory of principles underdeveloped through it may be is
accordingly bound to find a significant place in the sphere of philosophical inquiry regarding
matters of thought and action.
