- Holism: Dialectically, nothing can be viewed in isolation. There is always a bigger whole to be considered and each thing that one looks at is just a part of that whole.
- Dynamism (or constant change): Everything that exists can be considered to be in a state of motion, never static but always, in a sense, becoming what it is not already and, at the same time, leaving some of what it is behind.
- Relationship (or common ground): Each and every thing is related in some way to everything else, and it is those relationships that give the thing its essence.
- Transformation: This principle is rather harder to grasp than the other three because in some ways it is a combination of them.
Transformation is very often developmental in that there is movement towards a new form that transcends and includes the previous form, but it can also be regressive in the sense of a form breaking down, collapsing or reversing its previous growth.
