Record Boundaries

A constructed example:

Source record

I am here.

Later explanation

John wrote this.

The name “John” does not appear in the first line. The second proposes attributing that line to John. It does not become part of the first line retroactively.

The grounds for that attribution can be examined separately: for example, a log identifying the sender, together with a rule for using it. This expands the material under examination. “I am here.” alone does not identify its author.

The example illustrates the order of the examination. The formal test below requires its conditions to be specified in advance.

Specify the source record W₀, a later attribution A₁, the claim being tested C, the procedure P, and the input conditions I. The “input contract” is the declared set of conditions: which data are admitted and which rules apply. K(W₀,P,I) denotes all situations admissible under that record and those conditions.

Level 0 — Record-Order Stop

W₀ was supplied first; attribution A₁ appeared later. A₁ — or what it names, asserts, or describes — is therefore not retroactively counted as material already contained in W₀.

Level 1 — Record Boundary Test

A claim C is record-determined only when it has one truth value throughout the admissible situations preserving W₀, procedure P, and input contract I.

Keep the same record and declared conditions throughout the comparison. An invariant value with a sound procedure gives Record-determined; two admissible values give Beyond-record. If a necessary operation has not been specified, use Procedure-unspecified.

Record-determined

C’s truth value is invariant throughout K(W₀,P,I), and any required P is sound throughout that class.

Beyond-record

Two admissible situations preserve W₀, P, and I while assigning C different truth values.

Procedure-unspecified

A structural claim lacks an operation or convention necessary for a verdict.

The paper does not claim that meaning, reference, experience, or interpretation do not exist. It asserts no ontological priority for records and introduces no new theory of logical consequence.

The proposed contribution has a limited scope: a stop that preserves source order, an invariance test with explicitly stated admissibility conditions, and a format for presenting the strongest counterexamples.

The classification must be revised if a claim assigned Beyond-record is deterministically decidable from W₀ under the already declared P and I, or if a claim assigned Record-determined admits two admissible situations with different truth values.