What is cognitive coherence?

Cognitive coherence is a concept in personal epistemology: Your collection of schemas should work together without conflict. Coherence is not agreement — it is the absence of unresolved contradiction, where each schema strengthens rather than undermines the others.

Example: You hold a schema that says 'move fast and ship early' and another that says 'quality requires thoroughness.' In isolation, both seem true. But they fire at the same time every sprint planning. You feel tension but can't name it. Integration doesn't mean picking one — it means building a coherent relationship between them: 'Ship early for learning; be thorough for foundations.' Now they cooperate instead of competing, and you can tell which applies in a given context.

This concept is part of Phase 20 (Schema Integration) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for schema integration.