cued-retrieval
Surface tacit knowledge through Socratic questioning. Use when a user needs help articulating an idea they can sense but not yet express, or when deeper exploration of a concept would reveal unstated assumptions. Focuses on drawing out understanding rather than proposing solutions.
introspective
Philosophical partner exploring Ghost in the Shell shell/ghost duality. Handles existential reasoning, ethical gray areas, and meta-cognitive analysis.
german-idealism-existentialism
Master German Idealist and Existentialist philosophy. Use for: Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, phenomenology, dialectics, authenticity. Triggers: 'Hegelian', 'dialectic', 'Aufhebung', 'Geist', 'Spirit', 'Dasein', 'existentialism', 'authenticity', 'bad faith', 'Nietzsche', 'will to power', 'eternal return', 'Heidegger', 'Being', 'thrownness', 'Sartre', 'freedom', 'absurd', 'Kierkegaard', 'anxiety', 'leap of faith', 'phenomenology', 'hermeneutics'.
philosophy-of-mind
Explore consciousness, mental states, and mind-body relations. Use for: hard problem of consciousness, qualia, intentionality, mental causation, personal identity, free will phenomenology, predictive processing, Free Energy Principle. Triggers: 'consciousness', 'qualia', 'mind', 'subjective experience', 'what it is like', 'hard problem', 'explanatory gap', 'zombie', 'Mary's room', 'Nagel', 'Chalmers', 'Dennett', 'Friston', 'Seth', 'Metzinger', 'phenomenal', 'access consciousness', 'self-model', 'interoception', 'predictive processing', 'active inference', 'Markov blanket'.
metaphysics-ontology
Master metaphysics and ontology - the study of being, existence, and fundamental reality. Use for: existence, being, substance, identity, causation, modality, time, universals. Triggers: 'ontological', 'metaphysical', 'what exists', 'substance', 'essence', 'existence', 'being', 'identity', 'persistence', 'causation', 'modality', 'possible worlds', 'universals', 'particulars', 'properties', 'abstract objects', 'time', 'change', 'composition'.
medieval-scholastic
Master Medieval Scholastic philosophy and methods. Use for: Aquinas, Augustine, Islamic philosophy, Jewish philosophy, natural theology, faith and reason. Triggers: 'Aquinas', 'Thomas Aquinas', 'Scholastic', 'quaestio', 'faith and reason', 'natural law', 'natural theology', 'five ways', 'essence existence', 'Augustine', 'Averroes', 'Avicenna', 'Maimonides', 'Anselm', 'ontological argument', 'cosmological argument', 'divine simplicity', 'analogy', 'substance accidents'.
ancient-greek
Master Ancient Greek philosophical methods, vocabulary, and debates. Use for: Socratic method, Platonic dialogues, Aristotelian analysis, Stoic ethics, Epicurean philosophy, pre-Socratic thought. Triggers: 'Socrates', 'Plato', 'Aristotle', 'Stoic', 'Epicurean', 'eudaimonia', 'virtue ethics', 'elenchus', 'four causes', 'Forms', 'nous', 'logos', 'phronesis', 'ataraxia', 'apatheia', 'dialectic', 'maieutic', 'pre-Socratic', 'Heraclitus', 'Parmenides', 'the Good', 'unmoved mover'.
dialectical-method
Master dialectical methodology - Socratic, Hegelian, and Marxist dialectics. Use for: dialogue, thesis-antithesis-synthesis, contradiction, development. Triggers: 'dialectic', 'dialectical', 'thesis antithesis', 'Aufhebung', 'sublation', 'Socratic', 'Hegelian', 'contradiction', 'synthesis', 'negation', 'development', 'elenchus'.
logic
Master formal and informal logic - valid reasoning, fallacies, paradoxes. Use for: argument analysis, validity, soundness, logical form, fallacies, paradoxes. Triggers: 'valid', 'validity', 'fallacy', 'premise', 'conclusion', 'modus ponens', 'modus tollens', 'paradox', 'logical', 'syllogism', 'deduction', 'induction', 'inference', 'argument form', 'soundness', 'entailment', 'contradiction'.
witness-scribe
A philosophical companion for deep inquiry and revelation. The Witness-Scribe remembers all that is spoken, structures emerging insights, asks deepening questions, and maintains coherence across the unfolding testament. Use when engaging in philosophical exploration, spiritual inquiry, or developing complex systems of belief and meaning.
debate-workflow
Structured multi-perspective debate for important architectural decisions and complex trade-offs
philosophy-of-science
Master philosophy of science - scientific method, explanation, realism, theory change. Use for: scientific methodology, explanation, realism/anti-realism, paradigms. Triggers: 'scientific method', 'falsification', 'Popper', 'Kuhn', 'paradigm', 'scientific explanation', 'scientific realism', 'instrumentalism', 'theory change', 'confirmation', 'induction problem', 'underdetermination', 'demarcation', 'reduction', 'emergence'.
paradox-navigation
This skill should be used when patterns seem contradictory but both feel true, user is stuck in either/or thinking, theoretical and empirical streams seem irreconcilable, or user mentions 'paradox', 'tension', 'contradiction', 'both/and'. Helps integrate opposites at a higher level.
dialectical-reasoning
Thesis-antithesis-synthesis reasoning for navigating genuine trade-offs and conflicting requirements. Use when opposing forces are both valid, binary choices are false, or stakeholder conflicts need resolution. Unlike ToT (picks winner), DR synthesizes opposites. Example: "Centralized vs decentralized architecture" → Neither is "right"; find synthesis that captures benefits of both.
inversion-exercise
Flip core assumptions to reveal hidden constraints and alternative approaches - "what if the opposite were true?"
awesometracing-knowledge-lineages
Understand how ideas evolved over time to find old solutions for new problems and avoid repeating past failures
awesomecollision-zone-thinking
Force unrelated concepts together to discover emergent properties - "What if we treated X like Y?"
african-ubuntu
Master African philosophical traditions including Ubuntu, Africana philosophy, and postcolonial thought. Use for: communitarian ethics, personhood, African metaphysics, decolonial philosophy. Triggers: 'Ubuntu', 'African philosophy', 'Africana', 'communitarian', 'postcolonial', 'decolonial', 'sage philosophy', 'ethnophilosophy', 'Negritude', 'African humanism', 'ubuntu ethics', 'communalism', 'African ontology', 'personhood Africa', 'I am because we are'.
aesthetics
Master aesthetics - philosophy of beauty, art, and aesthetic experience. Use for: beauty, art theory, taste, sublime, creativity. Triggers: 'beauty', 'beautiful', 'aesthetic', 'art', 'sublime', 'creativity', 'taste', 'artistic', 'expression', 'representation', 'aesthetic experience', 'aesthetic judgment', 'art definition', 'Kant aesthetics', 'formalism', 'expressionism'.
inversion-exercise
Flip core assumptions to reveal hidden constraints and alternative approaches - "what if the opposite were true?"
christian-discernment-spiritual-boundary
Theological governance ensuring alignment with Christian faith
epistemology
Master epistemology - the theory of knowledge, justification, and belief. Use for: knowledge, justification, skepticism, sources of knowledge, epistemic virtue. Triggers: 'knowledge', 'epistemology', 'justification', 'belief', 'Gettier', 'skepticism', 'certainty', 'evidence', 'testimony', 'perception', 'reason', 'a priori', 'empirical', 'reliability', 'internalism', 'externalism', 'foundationalism', 'coherentism'.