kyleamathews/dialectic-press/dialectic-press

Dialectic Press

Transform dialectic outputs into polished essays — AI-assisted writing at "meso" abstraction with a structural recipe at the end.

When to Use

• You've completed a dialectic and want to turn it into a shareable essay
• The dialectic produced genuine insight — a reframing, a hidden question, a synthesis
• You want the essay to be pleasurable, not just summarizable
• You want to expose the method (the recipe) so readers can apply similar moves

The Method

1. Provocation/Hook — Concrete phenomenon that illustrates something larger
2. Reframing via analogy — Map onto a well-understood system from another domain
3. Conceptual currency — Coin precise terms that do load-bearing work
4. Structural unpacking — Decompose into layers, phases, or tensions
5. Implications/Stakes — What follows if the reframing is correct?
6. Recipe — Expose the generative moves as imperative verbs

What makes this different:

• Meso-level density — more detail than humans hold unassisted, less than AI handles autonomously
• Structural transparency — the recipe says "here's how the sausage was made"
• Human brings the moves — reframe, unpack, trace propagation, coin term
• AI executes at density — fills implications, generates prose holding many threads

Process Overview

This is an interactive workshop, not an autonomous pipeline. Each phase ends with a checkpoint where the user validates or redirects.

Phase 0: Intent       → User establishes what they want to write about
Phase 1: Inventory    → User confirms: "These are the key elements"
Phase 2: Analogy      → User picks from candidate analogies
Phase 3: Concepts     → User validates which terms do work
Phase 4: Outline      → User approves arc before writing
Phase 5: Write & Validate → Draft produced, cleaned, validated, user reviews

IMPORTANT: Read each phase file only when you reach that phase. Do not read ahead. This keeps instructions fresh in context and prevents skipping checkpoints.

Starting the Process

1. Ask the user which dialectic they want to draw from
2. Read phases/0-intent.md
3. Execute Phase 0 — establish what they actually want to write (may differ from dialectic topic)
4. Only after user confirms intent, read phases/1-inventory.md
5. Continue phase by phase

The user can intervene at any checkpoint — redirecting, adding constraints, or returning to an earlier phase.

Phase Files

• phases/0-intent.md — Establish what the essay is actually about
• phases/1-inventory.md — Survey dialectic outputs, identify key elements
• phases/2-analogy.md — Find and propose analogical domains
• phases/3-concepts.md — Coin and validate conceptual currency
• phases/4-outline.md — Map material onto the essay arc
• phases/5-write.md — Write, validate, and finalize

Recipe Variations