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By Philosopher Michael Alan Prestwood

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PRACTICE

Academic Thread

TST Positions 1: Metaphysics

The two layers, the split between our ideas and the material world.
By Michael Alan Prestwood

Author and Natural Philosopher

Sat 31 Oct 2026
Published 8 months ago.
Updated 3 days ago.
Thread
1 of 6
TST Metaphysics: The Split
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TST Theory of Truth: Reality-First Correspondence
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TST Doxastic Formation: Public Belief, Tribe, and Worldview
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TST Theory of Belief: Justification, Credence, and Recalibration
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TST Philosophy of History
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TST Philosophy of Fiction: Imaginative Realism
Clear thinking requires clear positions. TST Positions exists to state plainly where this framework stands on foundational questions.

TST Positions 1: Metaphysics

By Michael Alan Prestwood

The foundation of TST Philosophy: reality, ideas, truth, belief formation, calibrating belief, history, fiction, and the split between the material world and our descriptions of it.

Halloween 2026 Series

On October 31, 2026, TST Philosophy reached a major milestone with the coordinated release of six foundational papers. Together, they establish TST’s positions on metaphysics, truth, the formation of belief, justification and recalibration, history, and fiction. Each paper builds on ideas developed in 30 Philosophers (2024), presenting them as a connected philosophical framework. The papers are publicly available through TouchstoneTruth.com, Zenodo, and PhilPapers.

1 of 6
Updated This Week
Philosophy
Paper
TST Metaphysics: The Split
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TST Philosophy
TST begins with reality, gives reason an honored place, and asks speculation to know its limits. In that way, it follows a science-first thread through the fog of philosophy, not to erase the mystery, but to help us think more clearly while we live within it.
2 of 6
Updated This Week
Philosophy
Paper
TST Theory of Truth: Reality-First Correspondence
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TST Philosophy
Truth is not negotiable. Our descriptions are. Truth happens when an idea aligns with how things actually are — not when it feels coherent, useful, or widely accepted. Coherence constrains thinking. Pragmatism tests survival. But correspondence anchors everything. We aim at the world; we do not create it.
3 of 6
Updated This Week
Philosophy
Paper
TST Doxastic Formation: Public Belief, Tribe, and Worldview
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Personal Belief
Live your life in a way that fully understands your own beliefs. Personal belief forms through public belief, tribal influence, and your own worldview. We do not begin as blank choosers, nor are we merely passive products of society. We are born into a family language, religion, and philosophy.
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Updated This Week
THINK WELL
Paper
TST Theory of Belief: Justification, Credence, and Recalibration
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Epistemology
You justify your belief in a specific idea by first assigning it truth category (empirical, rational, irrational). Then you assign the appropriate degree of confidence that aligns with reality through empirical contact, logical coherence, disciplined testing. This establishes Public Truth. Finally, you calibrate your personal belief in it using your chosen pragmatic approach or empirical, rational, or irrational pragmatist.
5 of 6
Updated This Week
Critical Thinking
Paper
TST Philosophy of History
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Idea of Ideas
TST does not replace traditional philosophy of history. It organizes several of its strongest insights into a practical framework: the past was real, the traces are empirical, the story is rational, and rational credence aligns with evidence. TST’s Empirical Narrative Realism affirms objective events, rational reconstruction, and ongoing revision — preserving both realism and humility in how we tell human stories.
6 of 6
Updated This Week
Critical Thinking
Paper
TST Philosophy of Fiction: Imaginative Realism
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Philosophy of Fiction
Imaginative Realism holds that fiction is reality recombined. The mind cannot imagine outside all reality; it can only reshape impressions gathered from reality into new things.
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