Defining Boundaries

[Hosnon]

I'll come out and say it now that the one thing that really drives me crazy is when someone holds to a principle without fail. I used to be that way. It stems from a belief in something like Platonic Forms where as long as the principle is followed, the consequences are pretty much irrelevant. Example: I used to believe that if capitalism resulted in a few people dying from unregulated products it was ok because capitalism was God (As I was indoctrinated as a good American boy). However, with age one realizes that the real world MUST play into the equation.

So how do we define boundaries? For starters, I think that dictionary definitions of a principle are for the most part sufficient. However, each word has its boundaries that a definition using language can't fully desribe. That is where I think a term such as 'reasonable' enters the picture. Humans have to define which instances belong in a definition when that instance lies on the border.

thoughts?