By name: dialectic-vocabulary description: Reference for the scholastic + Greek vocabulary used in peer-grill and grill-me-agents protocols. Use when an agent needs to know what ELENCHOS, QUAESTIO, SED-CONTRA, RESPONDEO, or ALETHEIA mean as grill-log tags, or when authoring a structured disputation.
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 interviewgrill-me-agents— 13-branch interview for multi-agent designs- Substrate: Tipi — the
Beliefdataclass carriesverifier/falsifier/disputation/aletheia_sha256fields 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/RATIFYfor 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.