AIM Framework glossary
Foundational-Entailment Distinction (FED)
Canonical definition
The Foundational-Entailment Distinction (FED) is the principle that the foundational text of a general theory is required to lay out generative principles and demonstrate their application across major output categories, but is not required to derive every particular instance within its scope, the theory's scope extends to all derivable instances, while the text need only demonstrate the derivation procedure on representative cases.
Explanation
FED prevents a common misreading of general theories: the demand that the foundational text must contain every application. Newton's Principia derives the laws of motion and demonstrates them on planetary orbits, falling apples, and tides, it does not derive the trajectory of every cannonball ever fired, yet Newtonian mechanics covers all such trajectories in principle. Similarly, AIM's foundational text demonstrates how the three-source architecture generates predictions about markets, justice, conflict, and institutional design across representative cases. Demanding that the text derive every specific application, the dynamics of a particular housing bubble, or the escalation pattern in a specific geopolitical crisis, is a category error. FED clarifies the division of labour: the foundational text establishes and demonstrates; the research programme extends and tests. See Completeness Criterion for General Theory Status.
Epistemic status
Metatheoretical Principle.