Premises of Truth
Going back to the roots of the Western philosophic tradition, the attempt to study the world, to learn, and to understand has been inseparable from the search for truth.
Begin ReadingReality Exists
The first premiseis that human beings find themselves within a world they did not create and do not control.
Reality does not depend upon our wishes, preferences, opinions, or beliefs. Something does not become true merely because we believe it, nor does something cease to be true because we dislike it.
Truth, therefore, concerns whether our thoughts and statements conform to a reality that exists independently of the mind.
Reality Is Intelligible
The second premise is that the world possesses order and regularity.
The human mind is capable of discovering patterns, causes, differences, similarities, and relationships among things. We observe that some things happen necessarily, others regularly, and still others only under particular circumstances. The natural sciences depend upon the premise that such order can be investigated and understood.
The same basic question extends beyond the natural world. Human beings can ask whether there are enduring truths about human nature, happiness, justice, virtue, liberty, government, and the good life.
Human Beings Can Reason
The third premise is that reason is a natural human capacity.
Human beings can observe, compare, distinguish, question, infer, remember, imagine, and judge. We can examine evidence and arguments. We can reconsider beliefs we once held. We can ask whether what another person claims is actually true.
This does not mean that human beings are infallible. We misunderstand things. We make mistakes when we reason. We lack information. We deceive ourselves and sometimes deceive others.
But the possibility of error does not eliminate the possibility of truth. To call something mistaken, false, inaccurate, or misleading already assumes a standard of truth against which it can be judged.
What we discover through study and rational thought may be pleasing or displeasing, comforting or unsettling. But the experience of understanding—and of understanding that one understands—is among the highest activities of the human mind. Aristotle ascribed this “understanding of understanding” to God: noesis noeseos.
To call something mistaken, false, inaccurate, or misleading already assumes a standard of truth against which it can be judged.
What we discover through study and rational thought may be pleasing or displeasing, comforting or unsettling. But the experience of understanding—and of understanding that one understands—is among the highest activities of the human mind. Aristotle ascribed this “understanding of understanding” to God: noesis noeseos.
Why This Matters for Waypoints
These premises shape the way Waypoints approaches primary sources. We do not study an important text merely because someone wrote it, nor merely to catalogue the opinions of diverse people who lived in another time.
We want students first to understand what an author is saying and why. Then comes the most important question: Is it true?
A thinker may be right or wrong. An argument may be sound or defective. A political principle may correspond to truths about human beings—or contradict them. Historical circumstances can help us understand why someone thought or wrote as he did, but circumstances alone do not determine whether his claims were true.
This is why serious education involves more than acquiring information. It requires judgment.
These premises have played an especially important role in the Western philosophic tradition, but the claims themselves were never understood to apply only to Western people. If truth concerns what is, and reason is a natural human capacity, then the search for truth is open to human beings everywhere.
Waypoints proceeds from that premise: human beings are capable of reading carefully, reasoning seriously, asking difficult questions, and discovering truths about the world and about themselves.
Waypoints at a Glance
Waypoints is a serious civic learning platform. It helps you study and teach America’s essential documents—and the ideas behind them.
The Waypoints Library includes beautifully published primary-source documents accompanied by written and video tutorials. Together, these materials help teachers, parents, students, and lifelong learners explore American history, political philosophy, economics, liberty, and the challenge of self-government.
No. Waypoints is supplemental by design.
Waypoints is not meant to replace an existing history, civics, government, economics, or humanities curriculum. It is designed to strengthen the curriculum you already use by helping teachers, parents, and students study essential primary sources more deeply.
Not exactly. Waypoints is not a warehouse of ready-made daily lesson plans. Waypoints is a primary-source teaching and learning resource designed to help teachers understand essential documents and bring them into the classroom with confidence. Many tutorials include discussion questions, writing assignments, and classroom activities, but Waypoints begins with the documents themselves.
Waypoints is for teachers, school and district resource recommenders, homeschooling parents, lifelong learners, and anyone who wants to study America’s essential documents and the ideas behind them.
It is especially useful for those who want to understand liberty, constitutional self-government, and the moral and civic principles that shape the American experiment.
The Free Trial gives you access to selected Waypoints materials so you can see how the platform works before choosing a plan.
You can explore selected primary-source documents from the Waypoints Library, along with related written and video tutorials. It is the best way to see how Waypoints helps users study and teach primary sources with greater confidence.
Choose the Home Plan if you are a homeschooling family, parent, individual learner, or small household seeking access to Waypoints.
Choose the Academy Plan if you want access for a school, academy, department, or group of educators and students.
Choose a Custom Plan if you represent a district, charter network, larger organization, homeschool co-op, civic group, or special program with needs beyond the standard plans.
If you are not sure where to begin, start with the Free Trial.