Canonical Definitions Overview

Introduction

This page presents the Transformation Management Institute’s canonical scientific vocabulary.

The terms defined here specify the structural conditions governing systems, interpretation, meaning, action governance, and temporal stability. Together, they establish the conceptual framework used across the Institute’s research programs, monographs, and professional standards.

Each featured term names an irreducible structural condition. Supporting mechanisms, dynamics, qualifiers, and failure thresholds are specified within the corresponding definition pages.

This overview functions as a conceptual routing map, situating each term within the broader architecture and clarifying structural relationships among concepts.

I. System Conditions

These terms define the minimal conditions under which systems exist and resolve state across time.

System

An admissible unit of analysis that exists across time under a declared boundary, membership condition, operating constraints, and evaluation window.
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Constraint-Governed State Resolution (CGSR)

The unavoidable process by which an admissible system resolves from multiple possible states to a single subsequent state under constraint, without implying interpretation, meaning, authority, or obligation.
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II. Meaning Conditions

These terms define the conditions under which signals acquire action relevance.

Meaning

Action relevance assigned through interpretation: what a signal counts as for constraining response selection within an interpretive event under declared reference conditions.
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Meaning System

A bounded environment in which interpretation can govern coordinated action over time through reference conditions, pathways, and correction capacity.
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Defined within Meaning System:

• Meaning-System Variables (T, P, C, D, A)

  A fixed set of diagnostic dimensions used to assess meaning-system reliability within a declared boundary and window. The variables are diagnostic, not regime-determinative and not moral or normative judgments.
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  Defined within Meaning-System Variables:

  • Diagnostic Failure Modes (KF / CF)

    Named instability patterns used to classify how interpretive failure manifests in meaning systems.

    • Constraint Failure (KF)
      Failure of interpretive convergence due to weakened or unenforceable evaluation constraints.

    • Closure Failure (CF)
      Failure of correction permeability: contradictions cannot route to authorized revision or integration, increasing persistence of unresolved inconsistency across cycles.

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III. Interpretive Conditions

These terms define how candidate meanings arise and are shaped prior to governance.

Interpretation

The process by which signals are evaluated against declared reference conditions and mapped to candidate meanings.
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Defined within Interpretation:

• Interpretive Dynamics
  The pre-binding mechanics governing candidate variability, reversibility, and competition within an interpretive event.
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  Defined within Interpretive Dynamics:

  • Constraint Dominance
    The condition under which continued deferral is no longer viable under operative reference conditions, forcing binding to a single governing interpretation.
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  • Transition Drivers (β₆)
    Event-internal forces that compress interpretive variability and accelerate threshold crossing toward binding without determining which interpretation becomes governing.
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  • Transition Stabilizers (γ₆)
    Event-internal forces that preserve interpretive variability, soften threshold crossing, and increase reversibility as binding approaches without determining which interpretation becomes governing.
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Interpretive Jurisdiction
The admissibility condition that determines whose interpretations are eligible to bind within a declared system under the reference conditions treated as in force.
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IV. Action Governance

These terms define how meaning becomes force-bearing within an interpretive event.

Binding

The threshold within an interpretive event at which a single interpretation becomes action-governing. Binding is event-internal and does not imply persistence across time.
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Defined within Binding:

• De Jure Conditions
  The qualifying conditions that determine whether Action-Governing Meaning governs legitimately at binding, thereby differentiating PCMR from DMR
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Meaning Regimes (PCMR / DMR)

The governance classification operative at binding that determines whether Action-Governing Meaning governs under legitimate authority (PCMR) or only de facto control (DMR). Regimes are classified at binding and are not produced by closure or crystallization.

• Post-Closure Meaning Regime (PCMR)
  Binding under satisfied de jure conditions.

• De Facto Meaning Regime (DMR)
  Binding without satisfied de jure conditions, despite action occurring.

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Action-Governing Meaning (AGM)

The post-binding state in which meaning constrains response selection within an active interpretive event.
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Defined within Action-Governing Meaning:

• Response Routing
  The event-internal operation by which action-governing meaning is mapped to an admissible response pathway under the governing meaning.
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• Determinacy Conditions
  The minimal structural conditions required for a governing meaning to deterministically route response selection without reactivation of interpretation.
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• Event Closure State
  The event-internal determination of whether an interpretive event resolves to closure or remains in explicit openness following action governance and routing.
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• AGM Re-execution (AGM-rE)
  The post-event reuse of a previously bound action-governing meaning, in which the meaning is treated as already settled and continues to constrain response selection without reactivation of interpretation.
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V. Temporal Governance

These terms define how action governance persists, qualifies, and changes across time.

Crystallization
The post-event mechanism by which a bound meaning stabilizes into a reusable governing baseline capable of being re-executed without reactivating interpretation.
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Drift

The post-crystallization inconsistency accumulation rate: the rate at which a governing baseline accrues unresolved non-equivalences faster than correction and integration can absorb.
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VI. Reactivation Conditions

These terms define the conditions under which interpretation must re-engage.

Action Determinacy Loss (ADL)

The threshold at which a crystallized governing baseline can no longer deterministically route response selection relative to the reference conditions treated as in force, terminating AGM Re-execution and initiating a new interpretive event.
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Notes on Use

This overview supports structural orientation across the Institute’s definitions.

Detailed mechanics, variables, analytical tests, and failure classifications are specified within the relevant definition pages and scientific monographs. Unless otherwise stated, terms are descriptive and structural rather than evaluative or normative.