We are using here the conventional meaning of “tenets” or positions that are held for an integrated philosophy. The word comes from the Latin verb, tenure meaning to hold and in this context meaning the positions that proponents of that particular philosophy propose and support. A list of tenets gives a novice an introduction to the overall structure and span of a theory or philosophy.

Now SPT is supposed to be a systems science. Sciences do have assumptions under which they operate but those are not usually explicitly stated. Here we use both the terms tenet and Working Hypotheses to denote that we consider the SPT to be part of both worlds, hypotheses that can be tested, and positions that a group of human thinkers support.