The first chapter of the Philosophical Principles is devoted to the "three types of philosophy." Having shown the inconsistency of all types of empiricism and rationalism, the author proves the need for a "third type of contemplation" – mysticism.

Truth does not belong to theoretical knowledge in its isolation; Truth can only be that which is at the same time good and beautiful. "True truth, whole and living, contains in itself both its reality and its reasonableness and communicates them to everything else." Mystical philosophy knows that all being is only an image of the representation of being, but it also knows that man himself is more than an idea, and that even without going out of himself he can know about being. But mystical knowledge can only be the basis of true philosophy: it must also be subjected to the reflection of reason and confirmed by empirical facts.

"Free Theosophy must represent the highest state of all philosophy, both in the inner synthesis of its three main tendencies, mysticism, rationalism, and empiricism, as well as in its more general and wider connection with theology and positive science."

Solovyov retains the old names for the three components of free theosophy: logic, metaphysics, ethics, but, unlike other philosophical systems, he adds to them the term "organic." He managed to write only three chapters of his "Organic Logic".

The subject matter of free Theosophy is true being in its objective expression or idea. Together with mysticism, it is based on the unconditional, immediate reality of existence, but in spite of it it recognizes the development of this reality in the ideas of reason and in the experiences of nature. This is how the synthesis of mysticism, rationalism and empiricism is achieved. The goal of true philosophy is the liberation of man from everything external and his union with God; This is also the goal of religion. The material of integral knowledge is given by experience, and it is necessary to distinguish between external, internal and mystical experience; the latter is not characteristic of everyone, but "in the question of the validity of certain phenomena, the number of their subjects is obviously indifferent." The three types of experience are arranged hierarchically; above and most important are mystical phenomena; but Theosophical mysticism does not declare, "Natur ist Sunde, Geist ist Teufel"; it seeks to bring the divine principle into all human and natural things, not destroying, but integrating both spirit and matter.

The primary form of integral knowledge is mental contemplation or intuition (intellektuelle Anschauung); its existence is proved by the fact of artistic creativity.

The ideal images of the artist are neither copies of empirical reality, nor abstract general concepts; they appear before his mental gaze at once in all their inner entirety. The peculiarity of the contemplative idea lies in the combination of perfect individuality with perfect universality, and this is what distinguishes it from the concept and from the particular phenomenon. We can contemplate existent ideas because the ideal beings themselves act on us, evoke in us knowledge and creativity. This action of ideas is inspiration. "Thus, the active or immediately determining principle of true philosophical knowledge is inspiration."

The subject of true philosophy is the whole world in its generality. Philosophy studies being itself. But the absolute principle cannot be called being: it is the beginning of all being, all being is its object. Being is not being; nor is it non-being, for non-being is the deprivation of being, and to the absolute principle belongs all being. It should be defined as the power or force of being. Being presupposes a relation to the other, it is always relative, while being is unconditional. Being is the substance of everything, including ourselves; everything that is is one, it is deeper and higher than all being. Being is only the surface under which the truly existent is hidden, as an absolute unity.

The East knew existence only in the attribute of its absolute unity; but being is also the beginning of multiplicity; Not only "EN", but also "PAN". The West has come to know it as a multiplicity. A true universal religion must combine these two cognitions and realize on earth the real "En kai pan."

The Absolute Being is required not only by our reason, but also by our will as absolute good, and by our sense as absolute beauty.

Thus the absolute is nothing and everything, nothing in so far as it is not something, and everything in so far as it cannot be deprived of anything. If it is nothing, then being is something else for it; but at the same time it is the beginning of being, that is, the beginning of its other, therefore it is the unity of itself and its opposite. This logical law is only an abstract expression of the moral fact of love. Love is the self-negation of the being, the affirmation by it of the other, and yet by this self-negation its highest self-affirmation is realized. "Thus, when we say that the absolute principle by its very definition is the unity of itself and its negation, we repeat only in a more abstract form the words of the great Apostle: God is love."

In the Absolute there are two centres, or poles, the principle of singularity and freedom, and the principle of multiplicity and necessity. The second pole is the essence, or prima materia, of the absolute; The first pole, positive nothingness (en-sof), producing multiplicity, constantly triumphs over it, realizing itself as a positive unity.

The first matter is the desire or desire for being, the thirst for being, the eternal image or idea of being.

Distinguishing being from being as the principle that produces and possesses it, and distinguishing two centres or poles in being itself, we thus have three definitions: (1) that which exists freely (the first centre), (2) necessity or first matter (the second centre), and (3) being or actuality as their common product. The second definition, in contrast to the third, let us call essence, and then we get: being, essence, being, or: power, necessity, actuality, or: God, idea, nature.