# 20260316

I wrote this in [Forty-Two](https://www.isaacbowen.com/2007/01/14/forty-two), a short 2007 speech I wrote for an Academic Decathlon competition:

> To close: no matter what I believe, or what you believe, no matter who, if anyone, is correct, belief must be founded with a reason.
>
> If you believe, *know why*.

My current understanding: this is a navigational principle. Or a navigation-affordance principle, maybe? If you have a precise belief, and you know precisely how you arrived at that belief, the rest follows. Like literally, from there you can get to everything and everybody else. (See: "[foam](https://www.isaacbowen.com/2026/03/13/foam)"; not to be confused with "sea foam", although, maybe.)