Overview and Scope
Temporistics is a typological tradition attributed to Alexander Latyshev and Nika Sherman, drawing on temporal-existential ideas and the four-position structure used in Psychosophy. Before We Build uses it as a heuristic hypothesis about strategic temporal and existential framing: how people organize history, present location, direction, and meaning. It is not a value system, a complete theory of personality, or a predictor of relationship outcomes.
Its codes are compact models of proposed predispositions in abductive, inductive, and deductive structuring of temporal and existential experience, not personality types. Any natural basis is a further unvalidated hypothesis, with learning, role, culture, state, stress, and context as rivals.
Core Constructs
The school distinguishes four temporal aspects corresponding to baseline thinking processes. The descriptions below are research prompts and hypotheses, not established causal mechanisms.
| Aspect | Reference question | Thinking process | Strategic hypothesis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Past (P) | What history or continuity matters here? (“Why?”) | causal reasoning (causal analysis) | organization of memory, identity continuity, precedent, and retrospective analysis of causes and origins |
| Present / Now (N) | Where are we and what is the current position? (“What now?”) | situational-experiential reasoning (contact with the moment) | organization of place, current state, immediate resources, and situated conditions |
| Future (F) | Where are we going? (“Where?”) | scenario-probabilistic reasoning (path modeling) | organization of direction, probabilistic scenarios, expectations, and trajectory |
| Eternity (E) | What larger meaning or horizon frames this? (“To what end?”) | meaning-making and sense-making processes (teleology) | organization of existential meaning, meaning-making processes, overarching values, and durable significance |
Eternity concerns a proposed meaning frame and meaning-making processes. It does not measure morality, altruism, faith, human worth, or the truth of a worldview.
Position Structure
| Position | Common name | Cautious process hypothesis |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Target | tends to set the primary temporal frame |
| 2nd | Creative | tends to develop and translate the frame flexibly |
| 3rd | Painful / Vulnerable | may monitor the domain closely and experience pressure there |
| 4th | Blind / Low-priority | may accept external framing or invest less attention |
The source tradition also uses strong/weak and Berne-style analogies. BWB retains those only as attributed school language, not as proof of ability, pathology, or interpersonal stance. In BWB's research framing, positional modes are also compared with basic motivational axes of approach and inhibition. Position 1 is modeled as autonomous exploratory drive within the aspect's domain (analogous to Novelty Seeking / BAS). Position 3 is modeled as a zone of error monitoring and vulnerability (analogous to Harm Avoidance / BIS; see Temporistics as a Cognitive-Resource Routing Hypothesis).
Type Reference
The standard reference catalog contains the 24 permutations of P, N, F, and E. A code such as EPNF means 1E, 2P, 3N, and 4F; it compactly models a proposed process predisposition, not a kind of human being.
The 16 names such as Author (1P), Host (1N), Captain (1F), and Guru (1E) are aspect-position archetype aliases, not additional full types. The six tetrads are also formal reference groupings:
| Tetrad | Paired aspects |
|---|---|
| Antipodes | Present + Past |
| Guardians | Eternity + Past |
| Old-Timers | Present + Eternity |
| Conductors | Future + Eternity |
| Scouts | Present + Future |
| Nomads | Past + Future |
Tetrad and archetype names are mnemonics. They do not rank people or establish a shared destiny.
Observations and Alternative Explanations
Direct observations include how a person uses history, describes the current situation, plans direction, revises a forecast, or frames meaning in a concrete decision. A Temporistics position is an interpretation of repeated indicators. Age, life stage, culture, worldview, trauma, role, resources, education, time perspective, stress, and the decision itself are rival explanations.
What Must Not Be Inferred
- A type does not determine values, morality, dignity, faith, safety, vocation, or destiny.
- Strategic compatibility does not mean agreement on moral commitments; the value-moral foundation is separate.
- A position, archetype, or tetrad does not create a pair score, ranking, recommendation, or verdict.
- Public-person typings and narrative aliases are hypotheses or historical attributions, not observed facts.
Use in Before We Build
Temporistics supplies strategic questions: Which history should guide us? What is our present reality? What future are we committing to? What meaning makes the plan worth sustaining? Answers come from explicit commitments, observed decisions, context, and revision over time; a type code only organizes hypotheses.
Sources and Evidence Status
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These sources establish attributed school definitions, codes, archetypes, and tetrads. They do not by themselves establish psychometric reliability, construct validity, causal mechanisms, or pair outcomes.