ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how Hume opposed Grotius's founding of justice on a principle of humankind's disposition for sociability. It explores the meaning and use of the expression principles of natural religion in England, arguing that by the early eighteenth century, the newly discovered principles of Newtonian natural philosophy were being used as the principles that undergird the principles of natural religion themselves. The book shows how astonishingly successful those early modern mathematicians were who attempted to establish principles for the nature and behaviour of the natural world without recourse to sustained observation and experiment. Theories of principles were developed by early modern philosophers in order to account for their nature and uses. Many of these theories were heavily dependent on Aristotle's view of principles as found in his account of the acquisition of knowledge summarised earlier.
