1. Self-evident principles that are intrinsic to being as such and that are true of all things insofar as they have being. E.g., the principle of non-contradiction, the principle of identity, the principle of finality, etc.  Also, all principles which are first within a given order of scientific abstraction, known with immediate certainty once the terms of the proposition in question are sufficiently clear.  Referred to as “self-evident” or per se nota in order to designate the way that such principles are known without mediate inference.  When knowledge of such principles takes significant intellectual labor, they are said to be “self-evident to the wise.”  2. The most fundamental intrinsic and extrinsic causes of things, e.g., matter, form, and God.