Introduction
An open source book about "how to think". Maintained by ORI.
Source code: https://github.com/Open-Research-Institute/onboarding
Introduction: Learning How to Think
(How Perception and Interpretation Are Ordered)
To think well is not simply to gather information or argue persuasively. It is to learn how to relate rightly to reality—how to perceive clearly, reason soundly, and act with coherence.
This kind of thinking is not a quick technique. It is a lifelong formation of attention, judgment, and inner orientation.
This framework offers a map for that formation:
- It is structured from upstream to downstream—beginning with the foundational assumptions that make knowledge possible,
- It moves through the layers of interpretation, reasoning, and lived understanding.
- Each downstream stage draws its integrity from what precedes it upstream.
Many modern systems of education begin midstream—often with tools like logic, rhetoric, or scientific method—without first clarifying the underlying assumptions that those tools depend on.
This can lead to a fragmented mind: technically sharp, but unable to discern meaning, purpose, or coherence.
Science, for example, is a remarkable achievement for processing knowledge. But it relies on upstream assumptions—that the world is intelligible, that observation yields insight, that patterns carry meaning. These assumptions cannot be tested within science.
They are the priors that make science intelligible in the first place. Knowing where scientific thinking fits within this upstream-to-downstream flow is part of becoming a trustworthy thinker.
This guide is written to support learners at any stage. It is especially valuable for those beginning their journey—young people, new seekers, or anyone revisiting how they’ve been formed. But its structure is rigorous enough to serve seasoned thinkers as well.
Thus our aim is not only to inform, but to reorient the way we relate to knowledge itself—so that our thoughts are not just sharp, but also rightly ordered.
What This List Aims To Do
- Reveal the upstream structure beneath everyday thought—layers that are often assumed but rarely examined.
- Form the person, not just improve technique—shaping how we attend, interpret, and relate.
- Equip readers with a map for tracing knowledge from its origins to its expression, including where distortions or breakdowns occur.
- Clarify the role of reason and science—placing them within a larger flow of meaning, purpose, and participation.
- Build discernment—the ability to detect when thinking has drifted from first principles, and to return upstream for recalibration.
Topic Sequence: Learning How to Think (Upstream to Downstream)
This topic sequence is designed for onboarding readers, building formation step by step without assuming prior philosophical training. Each topic corresponds to a stage in the epistemic sequence and includes its rationale.
| Order | Topic Title | Purpose / Key Focus | Corresponds to Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What Must Be Presupposed? | Introduce the idea that all knowing rests on unprovable, starting points (e.g. intelligibility, unity, being) | Unconditioned Source |
| 2 | Is Reality Structured or Chaotic? | Explore whether the world has inherent order and purpose—or if meaning is constructed | Intrinsic Patterning |
| 3 | How Do We Come to Know? | Contrast detached knowledge (e.g. data collection) vs. relational, participatory knowing | Participatory Knowing |
| 4 | What is Reason For? | Frame reason not as self-justifying but as dependent on alignment with upstream purpose | Right Discernment |
| 5 | Why Perception is Never Neutral | Explain how attention, memory, and cognitive habits shape what we notice and how we interpret | Mental Formation |
| 6 | Where Does Science Fit? | Situate empirical methods as valid downstream tools, dependent on prior interpretive commitments | Empirical Perception |
| 7 | Can Knowledge Be Trusted Without Action? | Show how knowledge must be embodied and enacted to have coherence or authority | Wisdom-in-Action |
| 8 | What Shapes the Thinker? | Discuss inherited frameworks—culture, language, tradition—as scaffolds, not shackles | Inherited Formation |
| 9 | How Does Thinking Go Wrong? | Diagnose common breakdowns: epistemic drift, misordered priorities, loss of grounding | Integration (cross-level) |
| 10 | How Do We Return to First Principles? | Teach how to trace ideas upstream when confusion arises; introduce reflective techniques | Integration (cross-level) |
How It Is Ordered
This list follows a teleological and epistemic sequence. Each level presupposes the one upstream. Knowledge is not constructed from the bottom up like a pile of facts—it flows from prior commitments into structured understanding and lived expression.
Epistemic Sequence
Summary Table
| Level | Name | Description | Core Assumption (Upstream Prior) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🜂 1 | Unconditioned Source of Purpose | The ground of all intelligibility, telos and meaning. Final goal and first mover. | All knowing presupposes a given origin that is not derived. Knowing has Conscience. |
| 🜁 2 | Intrinsic Patterning | Reality is structured with discoverable order and purpose. | Meaning is embedded and embodied in things, not projected onto them. |
| 🜃 3 | Participatory Knowing | Understanding arises through engaged relationship. | Knowledge involves presence and transformation. |
| 🜄 4 | Right Discernment | Reason must align with upstream orientation. | Logic is governed by purpose and moral proportion. |
| 🧠 5 | Mental Formation | Perception is filtered through inner habits. | What we notice depends on how we have been shaped. |
| 📊 6 | Empirical Perception | Observations are always interpreted within a frame. | Data presupposes intelligibility, structure, and meaning. |
| 💬 7 | Wisdom-in-Action | Knowledge matures through lived coherence. | Truth is not static—it must be enacted to be fulfilled. |
| 🧬 8 | Inherited Formation | Thought is shaped by memory, tradition, and trust. | We interpret the world through what we have received. |
To think well is to move across all these layers consciously. Not just reasoning effectively, but tracing how and why we think as we do—and learning how to return upstream when something no longer holds.
This is not a textbook of techniques. It is a guide to becoming the kind of person whose thoughts carry coherence, whose judgments can be trusted, and whose way of seeing invites others to do the same.