I think Eli has the better starting point. If you want to understand a strange philosophical system you have to start by figuring out what it’s members believe, how they think about the world, what they profess that they ought to do. Once you understand that, you’ll want to go on to look at how their actual actions differ from their beliefs and how the predictions of their theories differ from reality. But if you don’t start with their beliefs, you’ll never be able to predict how an adherent would actually respond to any novel situation.
I think Eli has the better starting point. If you want to understand a strange philosophical system you have to start by figuring out what it’s members believe, how they think about the world, what they profess that they ought to do. Once you understand that, you’ll want to go on to look at how their actual actions differ from their beliefs and how the predictions of their theories differ from reality. But if you don’t start with their beliefs, you’ll never be able to predict how an adherent would actually respond to any novel situation.