Hypothesis

Canonical definition

A Hypothesis is a candidate explanation or proposition that Conscious Cognition can represent and over which it can distribute probability: an element of the Hypothesis Space, constituted from the Individual's Knowledge (the contents of the Memory Store). A Hypothesis may concern any subject matter, the external world, causal structure, another Individual's internal state, a mathematical or logical claim, or the source and object of the Individual's own valuations. Hypotheses about the source of one's own valuation (whether a given wanting is A-, I-, or M-driven) are one subset, and the most consequential, because Source Opacity strips exactly the Evidence that would resolve them. A Hypothesis bears a Prior and, after Bayesian Updating on Evidence, a Posterior; it becomes a Belief when Ground-Resolution writes it to the Belief Register. A Hypothesis whose constituent Knowledge is absent from the Memory Store cannot be represented, and so lies outside the Hypothesis Space until that Knowledge is acquired.