# What is the highest, most fundamental principle?

**URL:** <https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/what-is-the-highest-most-fundamental-principle/10551>\
**Category:** Philosophy\
**Created:** [November 20, 2023, 6:15am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/what-is-the-highest-most-fundamental-principle/10551 "2023-11-20T06:15:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 22

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**Author:** ![lozenge](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.centerforinquiry.org/lozenge/32/23405_2.png) [@lozenge](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/u/lozenge)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/what-is-the-highest-most-fundamental-principle/10551/22 "2023-11-22T02:31:52Z")

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@write4u@lausten

Great to point that out.

I think Humanism role is to refine and defend this idea that the highest, most fundamental principle is human welfare, which is a large term to refer to a spectrum:

self-preservation (access to life) → welfare (access to health and psychological/intellectual autonomy) → individual development/fulfillment (hedonism and individualism)

Individualism is just a refinement of psychological/intellectual autonomy.  
Hedonism is just a refinement of access to health.  
Autonomy and access to health are just refinements of self-preservation.

At each state, science and Reason play a major role:

\_You can not have self-preservation, access to health, and hedonism without science.  
\_You can not have self-preservation, psychological/intellectual autonomy and individualism without Reason.

(Therefore the topic on romanticism → [What do humanists think of romanticism?](https://forum.centerforinquiry.org/t/what-do-humanists-think-of-romanticism/10545/1))

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