religions and philosophies deny the existence of these universal principles, but they live and behave as if these principles do exist.) Examples include such concepts as I exist, other people exist, what I see exists, the past existed, there is a real, material world outside my mind, what I hear are real sounds, and the laws of nature are real and will endure. Also included are the “laws of logic,” which we will look at more closely in a moment. It is because of these first principles that we can