Constitutional Papers

The Constitutional Papers are the working record beneath the book — the principles, observations and proposals that make up the deeper investigation into the mechanism.

Where the book gives the framework its finished form, the Papers are where the reasoning is laid out in full: thirty papers building from the first principle of coherence through to the wider context that holds it. Read any paper individually, or the complete Constitutional Edition in one document.

The Thirty Papers

1. 01 Coherence BDTH proceeds from the working position that coherence is the ordinary condition of the human system. It is neither an achievement nor a rare psychological state. →
2. 02 Recognition Recognition frequently precedes explanation. Human beings often recognise coherence before they understand why it is recognised. →
3. 03 Interference If coherence is original, the principal obstacle to its ordinary expression must be acquired. BDTH uses the term interference to describe the acquired organisation that obscures coherence without replacing it. →
4. 04 The Gap Many individuals recognise brief periods during which the ordinary occupation of anticipation unexpectedly diminishes. BDTH uses the term The Gap to describe this observation. →
5. 05 Practice Practice concerns observation. Not acquisition. →
6. 06 Prediction Prediction is among the ordinary functions of the human system. Without prediction, organised life would be impossible. →
7. 07 The Verdict The human system continually produces conclusions. Many are necessary. →
8. 08 Skin BDTH uses the term Skin to describe the acquired architecture through which the individual progressively interprets experience. As this architecture develops, it progressively acquires the characteristics ordinarily recognised as personality. →
9. 09 Witness Witness describes the ordinary human capacity to observe experience without immediate identification with it. BDTH treats Witness neither as mystical nor as exceptional. →
10. 10 Passenger BDTH uses the term Passenger to describe the coherent functioning of the human system as unnecessary interference progressively diminishes. Passenger is not another personality. →
11. 11 Resolution BDTH uses the term Resolution to describe the completion of physiological organisation following experience. Resolution concerns the body before it concerns the narrative. →
12. 12 Attention Attention determines what becomes available for observation. BDTH therefore treats attention as one of the principal constitutional resources of the human system. →
13. 13 Emotion Emotion is among the most immediate features of human experience. BDTH does not regard emotion as the problem. →
14. 14 Memory Memory preserves continuity across experience. Without memory, organised human life would be impossible. →
15. 15 Identity Identity represents one of the most enduring organising principles of human experience. BDTH does not reject identity. →
16. 16 Language Language permits human beings to organise, communicate and preserve experience. BDTH does not regard language as the source of interference. →
17. 17 Freedom Freedom is frequently understood as the unrestricted ability to choose. BDTH examines a different question. →
18. 18 Responsibility Responsibility follows freedom. Where no alternative is recognised, responsibility remains correspondingly limited. →
19. 19 Relationship Relationship is among the principal expressions of human life. BDTH does not regard relationship as separate from coherent functioning. →
20. 20 Character Character is frequently understood as a collection of stable personal qualities. BDTH proposes a complementary observation. →
21. 21 Work Work occupies a substantial proportion of ordinary human life. BDTH therefore does not regard work as separate from coherent functioning. →
22. 22 Organisation Organisation precedes complexity. Where coherence exists, organisation naturally follows. →
23. 23 The Recognition of Coherence Human beings repeatedly recognise coherence wherever it appears. BDTH regards this observation as constitutionally significant. →
24. 24 Coherence and Randomness Human experience contains both order and unpredictability. BDTH therefore distinguishes between randomness in events and coherence in organisation. →
25. 25 Economy BDTH proceeds from the working position that explanatory economy possesses constitutional value. Where competing explanations account equally for the same observations, the explanation requiring fewer independent assumptions should ordinarily be preferred. →
26. 26 The Solar Field BDTH proceeds from the working position that the coherent organisation observed within the human system may correspond to a larger organising field of which the individual forms part. The Solar Field is proposed as that explanatory architecture. →
27. 27 Integration The purpose of these Papers is not the accumulation of concepts. It is the progressive integration of observation. →
28. 28 The Stand-Down The Stand-Down represents the practical application of the constitutional architecture developed throughout these Papers. It introduces no new principles. →
29. 29 After the Search Every framework should ultimately render itself unnecessary. BDTH proposes no permanent dependence upon its own vocabulary. →
30. 30 The Context of Coherence BDTH proceeds from the working position that coherence is not created independently by each living system. It is expressed through living systems. →