a principle applicable to all existing doctrines and human behaviors in development:

• reflect upon the underlying facts and assumptions during a behavior
• specifically, watch for assumptions and lies to yourself (self-deceptions)
• keep a written catalog of all assumptions you have ever used for a specific behavior
• once you detect a self-deception, check whether you have already written it down. If not, write a new self-deception down.
• at any point in time, such as during an argument, check your self-deception catalog.

Writing down a self-deception:

• be absolutely honest about the self-deception
• attempt short, exact and close formulations

Checking your self-deception catalog:

• helps you to be absolutely honest about what you base your behavior (or life) upon
• encourages you to be honest with yourself
• provides a solid discussion topic basis

To do: examples

more thoughts in the dled.livejournal.com archive.

Update: actually, the subject has been much better elaborated upon in the “Letters to a Young Contrarian” by Christopher Hitchens.