∆ DELTUM principles

The principles set shared bearings for discussion, practice and joint work. Their status is open: any position can be challenged, refined or replaced with an argument. Accepting the whole list is not a condition of taking part.

1. Incompleteness

The current state of a person, a system or a community does not exhaust all its possible future states. This position promises no limitless possibilities and does not devalue stability.

2. Self-sovereignty

What matters is a person's capacity to take a meaningful part in setting their own goals, actions and relationship to outside influences. Self-sovereignty does not require complete independence and does not justify running someone else's life.

3. Reflexivity and metaintelligence

It is useful to investigate not only the content of beliefs but also the ways they are formed. One's own methods and cognitive habits can also be checked for errors and limits.

4. Adaptability

Changed circumstances may call for changed strategies, tools or goals. Keeping to the previous course can also be a well-founded choice.

5. Agency

Ideas, skills and resources have a practical dimension: they can widen a person's ability to act. The real capacity to act depends not only on personal qualities but also on the environment.

6. Freedom and possibility

It is worth paying attention to which actions are actually available, what barriers exist and how alternatives can be created. More options do not always mean a better outcome.

7. Anti-dogmatism

No author, tradition or text of ∆ is exempt from criticism. Disagreement is judged by its arguments. Anti-dogmatism requires the discipline of testing, not automatic rejection of every position.

8. Responsibility for consequences

Transformation affects other people and the shared environment. When choosing actions, it matters to consider possible harm, the consent of those involved, and the balance of risks against expected benefits.

9. Diversity of directions

Different people may choose different goals, methods and forms of participation. ∆ does not declare a single image of the developed person, or an unchanging system of values, to be obligatory.

10. Revisability of ∆ itself

The triad, the names, the definitions, the principles and the ways the community is organised are also open to discussion. Keeping a recognisable symbol does not require the content to stand still.

What the principles do not require

They do not require constant productivity, agreement with the founder, refusing help, unconditional optimism, intellectual superiority or endless self-improvement.

In contested cases it helps to ask which principle exactly applies, on what grounds, with what limits and with what consequences.