AIM Framework glossary
Output-Capacity Entailment Principle (OCEP)
Canonical definition
The Output-Capacity Entailment Principle states that if a system S produces output O, then S possesses the capacity to produce O. The principle admits three variants: OCEP-Basic (the bare entailment from output to capacity), OCEP-Regular (the entailment that the capacity is a stable property of S if O is reliably produced across contexts), and OCEP-Denial (the claim that denying a demonstrated capacity is incoherent absent evidence of artefact, error, or intervening cause, and where such denial occurs on status grounds it constitutes Mimetic Deflection).
Explanation
OCEP formalises a near-tautological point that is nevertheless routinely violated in practice: if something actually happened, the system that did it could do it. A bird that flies can fly. A theory that generates accurate predictions across ten domains has the scope to cover those domains. The principle becomes non-trivial when communities deny demonstrated capacity, for example, refusing to acknowledge that a non-credentialed author's framework predicts outcomes in their field, despite the predictions being correct. OCEP-Denial identifies such refusals as requiring either an error explanation (the output was artefactual) or a status explanation (the output is real but we refuse to acknowledge the source). Where the error explanation fails, only the status explanation remains, and the denial is reclassified as Mimetic Deflection. See Derivation-Not-Ambition Principle, Completeness Criterion for General Theory Status, Mimetic Deflection. Metatheoretical Principle.
Epistemic status
Metatheoretical Principle.
Derivation
Chapter 3, Section 3.1.2; Chapter 3, Section 3.1.3; Chapter 3, Section 3.6.2.