dialectic-vocabulary

Dialectic Vocabulary

The vocabulary that names the moves of grilling. Greek for the soul of the inquiry, Latin for the form on the page.

The synthesis

An unexamined claim does not exist. It's superposition the observer can't collapse, because there's nothing in it to collapse onto. The producer-side discipline (verifier, source, confidence rating, ALETHEIA stamp) is what gives a claim enough specificity to be measured.

This is the strong-form sibling of the observer-principle doctrine, applied one rung upstream:

Frame	What it says
Observer principle (consumer)	Until a downstream reader independently verifies, the claim is provisional
Unexamined-claim (producer)	Until the claimant applies measurement-machinery, there is nothing for the observer to measure
Synthesis	A claim is brought into existence by the act of grounding it

Greek (act-of-inquiry register)

Term	Transliteration	Meaning	Where in the protocol
διαλεκτική	dialektikē	The whole art of reasoning through dialogue	The peer-grill protocol itself
ἔλεγχος	elenchos	Socratic cross-examination	Grill rounds in grill-log.md
ἀλήθεια	alētheia	Truth as un-concealment	Ratification stamp on merged state
σύνθεσις	synthesis	Putting-together; convergence	The merged-state file
λόγος	logos	Word, reason, structured account	The claim — the account that must be defensible
ἀπορία	aporia	A puzzle without resolution	The unresolved.md outcome

Latin (scholastic disputation register)

A quaestio in Aquinas's Summa Theologiae has a fixed form. Each question gets:

Term	Meaning	Where in the protocol
quaestio	The disputed thesis	Statement field of a contested claim
obiectio / obiectiones	Numbered objection(s)	Counter-claims from peer agents
sed contra	The strongest opposing argument	One designated counter with the highest authority
respondeo	The author's adjudicating response	Author's reply that resolves the dispute
responsiones	Per-objection replies	Detailed answers to each obiectio

Grill-log tags (canonical)

Use these as the prefix on grill-log entries:

Tag	Meaning
ELENCHOS	A cross-examination question (round 1+)
APORIA	An impasse — escalating to unresolved.md
ALETHEIA	A ratification stamp; the claim is now considered unconcealed truth
QUAESTIO	Opening a structured disputation on a contested claim
OBIECTIO:N	Objection N to the open quaestio
SED-CONTRA	The strongest counter, designated
RESPONDEO	The author's adjudicating response
RESPONSIONES	Per-objection replies
RATIFY:<id>	Sign-off for routine claims that don't need full quaestio form

The protocol keeps RATIFY: as the default for everyday claims. The Latin tags are reserved for high-stakes claims where the disputation form earns its overhead.

When to use which form

Claim shape	Use
Empirical, low-stakes, has a verifier	RATIFY:<id> after grader returns PASS
Empirical, contested	ELENCHOS rounds, then RATIFY or APORIA
Normative, contested	QUAESTIO form (full structured disputation)
Foundational principle	TLA+/Alloy AND quaestio form; ratify with ALETHEIA <sha256>

Greek-alphabet fingerprints

Every claim carries an optional 4-letter Greek fingerprint auto-derived from sha256(NFC(id)). Display-layer only — never in pathnames, never in canonical-statement hash, never authored.

GREEK = "αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω"  # 24 letters
fingerprint = "".join(GREEK[b % 24] for b in sha256(NFC(id))[:4])

id	fingerprint
memory-md-truncation	⟦τκφε⟧
dizzy-clobber-footgun	⟦ινξψ⟧

Use peer_grill_fingerprint.py <id> to compute, or --batch claims.yaml to print all. Fingerprints appear in the leftmost column of graded.md and in the Belief.fingerprint field of the Tipi consciousness contract.

The layering matters: Latin id is load-bearing (FS, hash, collision-check); Greek fingerprint is the philosophical register (visual handle, auto-derived, cannot homoglyph-collide because hash function refuses). Same purpose as a git short-sha — give the eye somewhere to land.

The ἀλήθεια stamp

When a claim moves to state.merged.yaml, append a line to signoff.md:

ALETHEIA <agent-name> <ISO-timestamp> sha256:<hex of merged statement>

ἀλήθεια is literally un-forgetting — the negation of λήθη (Lethe, the river of forgetting). To stamp it is to assert: this claim has been examined; it is not concealed by appearance, fashion, or expedience.

If two agents independently RATIFY the same merged statement but their ALETHEIA stamps' sha256s don't match, that's an integrity failure — the protocol fails loud rather than silently merging diverged state.

See also

• peer-grill — file-based reconciliation protocol (this skill is its vocabulary reference)
• grill-me — single-track relentless interview
• grill-me-agents — 13-branch interview for multi-agent designs
• Substrate: Tipi — the Belief dataclass carries verifier / falsifier / disputation / aletheia_sha256 fields natively
• Vault doctrine: docs/conventions/dialectic-vocabulary.md (the canonical, longer-form version)

What this is NOT

• Not a religion or appeal to authority. The form survived because it works, not because it's sacred.
• Not a barrier to entry. Plain ELENCHOS / RATIFY for everyday claims; the Latin form is reserved for stakes that earn it.
• Not a substitute for verifiers. A formally-disputed normative claim is still a value judgment; a formally-disputed empirical claim should also have a runnable verifier. The forms compose.