First Principles and First Values | Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zak Stein

Why it is here:

This is the philosophical North Star of the entire library.

While other books describe the mechanics of a Flourishing World (how to build it), Gafni and Stein describe the telos—the ultimate purpose behind it.

They argue that the modern "Meta-Crisis" is ultimately a "Crisis of Meaning," stemming from a materialistic worldview that sees the universe as a dead, accidental machine.

They counter this with "Cosmoerotic Humanism," a rigorous meta-theory arguing that the universe is intrinsically driven by Eros—an evolutionary impulse toward connection, creativity, and higher complexity.

They posit that "Value" is not a subjective human invention, but a fundamental fabric of reality, just like gravity.