CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — revelation, filtering, and interpretation
64. Term: Epistemic interface (I_A)
Definition: A structured interface for agent A: the token‑states available to A, plus the update and inference relations that govern them.
65. Term: Public doctrinal claim (δ)
Definition: A proposition presented in a community as belief/action‑guiding and normatively binding, typically grounded in revelation/scripture/institutional authority.
66. Term: Testimony
Definition: An act/artifact where a source presents proposition φ as true to a recipient, and the recipient treats that presentation as evidence for φ.
67. Term: Transmission chain
Definition: A finite sequence of agents/artifacts connecting an originating event/report to the final tokened artifact through which φ reaches a given agent.
68. Term: Human Interface Thesis
Definition: The thesis that every public doctrinal claim is human‑interface bound: any warrant anyone has for it is mediated by transmission chains inside finite epistemic interfaces.
69. Term: Revelation Filter
Definition: The composite transformation that alleged revelation undergoes—cognitive tokening → linguistic encoding → social transmission → documentary stabilization → canon selection → interpretive uptake.
70. Term: Steelman hermeneutic
Definition: Interpretive policy: assign a doctrinal claim its strongest coherent reading compatible with the system’s anchors, rather than the weakest or most literal reading.
71. Term: Silence of new revelation
Definition: The observed absence (at scale) of fresh, unambiguous, publicly verifiable revelation that would override transmission/filter problems.
72. Term: Apophatic move
Definition: Retreat from positive literal predicates about ultimacy toward negative/limit language (“not this”), to avoid finitude contradictions.
73. Term: Apophatic convergence
Definition: Under steelmanning + ultimacy discipline, different traditions tend to converge toward apophatic/negative theology (because strong literal predication forces finitude).
74. Term: Ineffability shield
Definition: Using “ineffable / beyond words” as an immunity move to block critique while still making practical/authority claims.
CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — fairness, salvation mechanics, and pressure points
75. Term: Belief gate
Definition: Any soteriological rule that makes salvation/ultimate success depend on believing or assenting to specific propositions.
76. Term: Soteriological criterion
Definition: The condition a tradition treats as necessary/sufficient for salvation/liberation/ultimate success.
77. Term: Fairness clause
Definition: Accountability must track an agent’s access to the claim and capacity to understand/assent; otherwise condemnation is unjust.
78. Term: Access condition
Definition: The agent actually had exposure to (and a live chance to encounter) the saving claim/practice.
79. Term: Capacity condition
Definition: The agent had the cognitive/psychological capacity to grasp and respond (not merely be told words).
80. Term: At‑will test
Definition: A check on whether belief is voluntarily controllable; if belief is not at will, blame for nonbelief becomes unstable.
81. Term: Salvation paradox
Definition: The tension: if ignorance is excused, nonbelief can become “safer” than belief; if ignorance is not excused, the fairness clause is violated.
CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — translation layer and drift vocabulary
82. Term: Translation layer
Definition: A map‑like symbolic system that links human interface states (language, ritual, images) to claims about ultimacy.
83. Term: Map–territory gap
Definition: The structural mismatch between the translation layer (map) and what is ultimately real (territory), amplified by finite interfaces.
84. Term: Translation drift
Definition: The systematic shifting of meanings across time due to language change, interpretation, institution, and copying/selection processes.
85. Term: Doctrinal divergence
Definition: The predictable branching into incompatible doctrines as transmission chains and translation drift accumulate.
86. Term: Existential convergence
Definition: The recurring convergence of traditions on similar existential structures (suffering/meaning/transformation) despite doctrinal divergence, due to shared human constraints.
CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — personhood, preference, and the finite‑god collapse machinery
87. Term: Personhood predicates (P)
Definition: A set of predicates characteristic of personal agents (knows, chooses, intends, loves, commands, etc.) applied to “God.”
88. Term: Anthropomorphic predication
Definition: Attributing personhood predicates to ultimacy as if ultimacy were a humanlike agent.
89. Term: Preference structure (Pref)
Definition: A nontrivial ordering of alternatives (“prefers A to B”) that guides choices.
90. Term: Ultimacy‑as‑totality (E)
Definition: Treating ultimacy as totality: the all‑inclusive whole rather than a bounded chooser among options.
91. Term: Limitation (L(x))
Definition: x is limited when x is not identical to totality (there exists something in totality that is not x).
92. Term: Predicate finitude
Definition: Any positive, determinate predicate applied literally to ultimacy imposes a boundary (and thus finitude) unless it collapses into totality language.
CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — practice‑forward alternatives
93. Term: Nondual ultimacy
Definition: An ultimacy model where the ultimate is not a separate personal subject over against the world, but a nondual ground/totality.
94. Term: Reciprocity Principle
Definition: The idea that ultimate success should be reciprocal with human constraints—reachable across cultures without arbitrary belief gates tied to historical accident.
95. Term: Practice Primacy
Definition: The thesis that transformation/practice (not assent to propositions) should be treated as primary evidence/route for spiritual success.
96. Term: Skillful means
Definition: Doctrines/rituals are tools for transformation—valuable even if not literally metaphysical descriptions.
CATEGORY: FINITE MIND, FINITE GOD — institutional control vocabulary
97. Term: Unobservable predicate
Definition: A property claim that cannot be directly checked by ordinary public observation (e.g., “saved,” “pure,” “in grace,” “chosen”).
98. Term: Observable predicate
Definition: A publicly checkable behavior/marker (attendance, dress, speech, ritual compliance).
99. Term: Proxy metric
Definition: An observable predicate used as a stand‑in for an unobservable predicate.
100. Term: Compliance marker
Definition: A proxy metric used specifically to mark membership/obedience and to police boundary lines.
101. Term: Authority stacking
Definition: Layering multiple authorities (text, leader, institution, tradition) so dissent has no stable court of appeal.
102. Term: Threat architecture
Definition: A structured system of punishments/fears (social, psychological, metaphysical) that enforces compliance.
103. Term: Control overlay
Definition: The institutional layer that uses proxies + threats to control populations, often drifting away from genuine existential transformation.
104. Term: Primacy test
Definition: A diagnostic test for whether a tradition’s operational center is (i) lived transformation/practice or (ii) compliance/authority enforcement via proxies.
CATEGORY: FORMAL LOGIC, MATHEMATICS, AND SEMANTICS
105. Term: Proposition
Definition: A declarative content that is truth‑apt: it can be true or false.
106. Term: Propositional logic
Definition: A formal system that treats propositions as atomic units combined by truth‑functional connectives (such as negation, conjunction, and disjunction).
107. Term: Predicate
Definition: An expression with one or more argument places that yields a proposition when its variables are filled or bound (for example, “is conscious(x)”).
108. Term: First‑order logic (predicate logic)
Definition: A formal system extending propositional logic with predicates, variables, and quantifiers over individuals in a domain.
109. Term: Quantifier
Definition: An operator that binds a variable and states how many objects in a domain satisfy a predicate (most commonly universal and existential quantifiers).
110. Term: Universal quantifier (∀)
Definition: The quantifier meaning “for all” objects in the domain: ∀x φ(x) states that φ holds for every x.
111. Term: Existential quantifier (∃)
Definition: The quantifier meaning “there exists” at least one object in the domain: ∃x φ(x) states that φ holds for some x.
112. Term: Negation (¬)
Definition: The logical operator meaning “not”: ¬p is true exactly when p is false.
113. Term: Conjunction (∧)
Definition: The logical operator meaning “and”: p ∧ q is true exactly when both p and q are true.
114. Term: Disjunction (∨)
Definition: The logical operator meaning “or” (inclusive): p ∨ q is true when at least one of p or q is true.
115. Term: Material conditional (→)
Definition: The truth‑functional “if…then”: p → q is false only when p is true and q is false.
116. Term: Biconditional (↔)
Definition: The connective meaning “if and only if”: p ↔ q is true when p and q have the same truth value.
117. Term: Modal logic
Definition: A family of logics that adds modal operators to express necessity and possibility (and related notions).
118. Term: Necessity operator (□)
Definition: A modal operator often read as “necessarily”: □p means p is true in all relevant possible worlds.
119. Term: Possibility operator (◇)
Definition: A modal operator often read as “possibly”: ◇p means p is true in at least one relevant possible world.
120. Term: Possible world
Definition: A standard semantic device used to model different ways reality could be; in modal semantics, truth can be evaluated relative to a world.
121. Term: Model (in logic)
Definition: A mathematical structure that interprets the language of a theory (domain + interpretation) and allows evaluation of which sentences are true.
122. Term: Domain (of a model)
Definition: The set of objects over which variables range in a logical model.
123. Term: Interpretation function
Definition: A mapping that assigns meanings to nonlogical symbols (constants, function symbols, predicates) within a model.
124. Term: Validity
Definition: An argument is valid when it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false (in the intended semantics).
125. Term: Soundness
Definition: An argument is sound when it is valid and its premises are true.
126. Term: Semantic entailment (⊨)
Definition: φ entails ψ when there is no admissible interpretation in which φ is true and ψ is false.
127. Term: Syntactic derivability (⊢)
Definition: A relation where ψ is derivable from φ by the rules of a formal proof system.
128. Term: Consistency
Definition: A set of statements is consistent when it does not entail a contradiction (there is no statement p such that both p and ¬p are derivable).
129. Term: Contradiction
Definition: A statement (or pair of statements) that cannot be true together; classically, p ∧ ¬p is a contradiction.
130. Term: Reductio ad absurdum
Definition: A proof method that assumes a target claim (or its negation) and derives a contradiction to establish the opposite.
131. Term: Axiom
Definition: A starting statement adopted without proof within a formal system, used to derive further results.
132. Term: Theorem
Definition: A statement proven from axioms (and previously proven results) using accepted rules of inference.
133. Term: Lemma
Definition: A proven helper result used as a stepping stone toward a larger theorem.
134. Term: Corollary
Definition: A result that follows with minimal additional work from a theorem.
135. Term: Set
Definition: A collection of distinct elements treated as a single object in mathematics.
136. Term: Element of a set (∈)
Definition: The membership relation: x ∈ A means x is an element of set A.
137. Term: Empty set (∅)
Definition: The set with no elements.
138. Term: Subset (⊆)
Definition: A ⊆ B means every element of A is also an element of B.
139. Term: Set‑builder notation
Definition: A way to define a set by a property, for example {x | φ(x)} meaning “the set of all x such that φ(x)”.
140. Term: Ordered pair
Definition: A pair ⟨a, b⟩ where order matters; used to define relations and functions.
141. Term: Relation
Definition: A set of ordered tuples; a binary relation is a set of ordered pairs relating two domains.
142. Term: Function
Definition: A mapping f : A → B that assigns each element of A (domain) exactly one element of B (codomain).
143. Term: Domain (of a function)
Definition: The input set A for a function f : A → B.
144. Term: Codomain
Definition: The designated output set B for a function f : A → B.
145. Term: Range / image
Definition: The set of actual outputs of a function: {f(x) | x ∈ A}.
146. Term: Alphabet (Σ)
Definition: In formal language theory, a finite set of symbols used to build strings.
147. Term: String
Definition: A finite sequence of symbols from an alphabet (for example, a word over Σ).
148. Term: Kleene star (Σ*)
Definition: The set of all finite strings over alphabet Σ, including the empty string.
149. Term: Type–token distinction
Definition: A standard distinction where a type is an abstract kind (for example, a word), and a token is a particular instance of that type (a specific printed occurrence).