Principles of Homeopathy
 
Every science has certain fundamental principles which guide the whole system. Homeopathy as a science of medical treatment has a philosophy of its own and its therapeutics is based on certain fundamental principles. These are:
  1. Law of Similia
  2. Law of Simplex
  3. Law of Minimum
  4. Doctrine of Drug Proving
  5. Theory of Chronic Disease
  6. Theory of Vital Force
  7. Doctrine of Drug-Dynamisation

These fundamental principles are elaborated in the following sections.

Law of Similia
Homeopathy is a system of medicine founded on a definite law 'Similia Similibus Curantur' which means 'like cures like'. The word Homeopathy is a Greek derivation where 'homeos' means 'similar and pathos means 'suffering'. So Homeopathy may be defined as the therapeutic method of symptom-similarity. The recognition of this law was there even before Hahneman. Paracelsus, Hippocrates, and ancient ayurvedic texts have on occasions mentioned this law. But it was Hahneman who recognized the universality of this law and lifted it from oblivion to make it the basis of a complete system of medicine.

According to this system, the choice of the medicine is fundamentally based on the principle that the medicine must have the capability of producing most similar symptoms of the disease to be cured in healthy persons. In aphorism 26 of 'Organon of Medicine', Hahneman states this law: "A weaker dynamic affection is permanently extinguished in the living organism by a stronger one, if the latter (whilst differing in kind) is very similar to the former in its manifestations." 

Law of Simplex - The Single Remedy
Hahneman in aphorisms 272-274 of ' Organon of Medicine' states that only one single, simple medicinal substance is to be administered in a given case of time. This is due to the following reasons:
  1. The homeopathic remedies were proved singly, and the Materia Medica was built up on the observed effects of drugs given singly, either in planned provings or in accidental provings.
  2. Only one remedy can be the most similar at any given time to the condition of any given patient.
  3. Moreover, if more than one remedy is used the doctor will never know which element was curative and our source of future guidance is obscured.
  4. If more than one drug is given in one prescription the possibility of synergistic action cannot be ruled out, but it cannot be argued that the effect will be the sum total of the effects of the separate drugs. The ingredient drugs may even result in interactions that may have adverse effects in the body. A mixture of more than one remedy in a single dose would constitute a new remedy which would require to be proved as such for a proper estimate of its probable effects.

Law of Minimum
The suitableness of a medicine for any given case does not depend on its accurate homeopathic selection alone, but likewise on the proper size of dose too. Under this principle we give medicine to the patients in very minute doses. The minute dose means that quantity of a medicine which is though smallest in quantity produces the least possible excitation of the vital force and yet sufficient to effect the necessary change in it(§ 246). The quantity is minimum, yet appropriate, for a gentle remedial effect. This concept of minimum dose lead to the discovery of a practical process called potentisation. Administration of the minimum dose has the following advantages:
  1. To avoid unwanted aggravation
  2. The specific dynamic action which produces the uncommon, characteristic, distinguished symptoms of the drug, is produced by the minimum quantity of drug.
  3. The smallness of the dose does not allow the drug to do any organic damage nor there is any risk of drug addiction and drug effects.
  4. The concept of minimum dose can be verified by Arndt-Schultz law that small doses stimulate, medium doses paralyze and large doses kill. I other words, the action of small and very large doses of the same substance on living matter is opposite.
  5. The Law of Least Action, formulated by Maupertius, the French mathematician, states : "The quantity of action necessary to affect any change in nature is the least possible, the decisive amount is always a minimum, an infinitesimal."