In religious studies, can first principles transcend faith boundaries?

这个问题很有意思，我'll try to share my thoughts from an ordinary person's perspective, without resorting to complex academic jargon.

Simply put, "First Principles" is like digging deep and asking "why" repeatedly until you hit that most fundamental, core, irreducible "brick." Take car manufacturing, for example. Instead of looking at how others build cars, you ask: what are the most basic components of a car? Metal, glass, rubber... how much do these things cost? It's from this perspective that we got incredibly low-cost rockets and electric vehicles.

So, can this approach be applied to religious studies, and even transcend different faiths?

I think it's a two-sided coin.

On one hand, it "can" cross boundaries, but this "crossing" is on the level of academic analysis.

You can imagine different religions as dishes from various cuisines, like Sichuan, Cantonese, or French. They appear vastly different, using entirely distinct spices, cooking methods, and plating.

If you apply First Principles analysis, you're not asking, "What secret sauce did this dish use?" but rather, "What fundamental human need does this dish satisfy?" The answer might be: providing energy, bringing gustatory pleasure, or fulfilling social needs (like hosting guests).

You see, from this most fundamental level of need, all cuisines share common ground.

Similarly, by "dissecting" different religions using First Principles, you can discover that they all respond to some common, most fundamental human dilemmas and needs:

1. Fear of death: Everyone dies, where do we go? Almost all religions attempt to answer this question.
2. Search for meaning in life: Why am I alive? What is the purpose of life?
3. Desire for moral order: What can be done, and what cannot? How can a stable and harmonious society be established? (For instance, the Golden Rule, "Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself," has variations in various religions and cultures.)
4. Need for belonging: Humans are social animals; they need communities and organizations for identity and support.

From this perspective, First Principles acts like an X-ray, penetrating the ornate outer layers (rituals, myths, doctrines) of different religions to reveal the very similar "skeleton of human needs" beneath. This is incredibly helpful for comparative religious studies and understanding why religion appeals to people.

But on the other hand, it "cannot" truly cross the boundaries of faith, especially in the inner world of believers.

Why do I say that? Because the core of faith itself is a "first principle," but it's a principle based on "the sacred" or "revelation," not on logical reasoning.

For a Christian, "God is the Holy Trinity" is their first principle; you cannot further ask, "Why is it a Trinity and not a Quadrinity?" For a Muslim, "The Quran is the word of Allah" is their first principle; you cannot analyze "the grammatical structure and logical flaws of this statement."

These core doctrines, within the believer's system, are those most fundamental, unquestionable "bricks."

If you try to use an external, rational First Principle to analyze or even "deconstruct" these sacred doctrines, then from a believer's perspective, you are not "crossing boundaries"; you are "blaspheming" and "offending" those boundaries. It's like saying, "that most important stone in your foundation, and I think we can smash it open to see what it's made of." This is unacceptable to them.

So, to summarize my view:

First Principles is a very powerful analytical tool that can help an external observer (like a scholar) transcend the superficialities of different faiths to see the common human logic and functions behind them. It helps us "understand religion."

However, it cannot become a "key to unify" all faiths, nor can it truly enter the inner world of believers. This is because the foundation of faith lies precisely in those core tenets that do not accept being deconstructed by "reason" and "logic." For believers, their faith itself is the ultimate first principle.