Kinds, Intent and Extent, and Typed Reasoning
About this pattern
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How to use this pattern
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Type: Typed reasoning discipline pattern Status: Stable Normativity: Normative unless a section is explicitly informative
Use this pattern when a claim needs a reusable kind, a subkind comparison, a judgment about whether one exact candidate satisfies one kind, or an optional representation of the candidates that satisfy it in one exact context slice. A kind may be used locally without receiving its own public U.* name; “local” describes the bounded use, not an identity component.
Keywords
- admitted U.Kind individual
- membership distinction
- KindSignature
- admissibility
- true/false/unknown judgment
- optional extension
- SubkindOf preorder
- distinct-kind KindBridge.
Relations
Content
Use This When
Use this pattern when a claim needs a reusable kind, a subkind comparison, a judgment about whether one exact candidate satisfies one kind, or an optional representation of the candidates that satisfy it in one exact context slice. A kind may be used locally without receiving its own public U.* name; “local” describes the bounded use, not an identity component.
What goes wrong if missed. A source type, practice label, programming class, schema label, mathematical set, or public U.* name starts doing several jobs at once. A source boundary splits one unchanged kind; several kinds inside one source collapse; the kind is confused with its declaration; evidence is treated as membership; a non-applicable request becomes unknown; or a current extension becomes ontology.
What this buys. A practitioner can recover the kind's membership distinction, the declaration used to classify, an admissibility result, one three-valued judgment when admissible, and any optional extension representation while leaving source provenance, direct world-side conditions, evidence, scope, Work, and public naming with their own patterns.
Primary EntityOfConcern. One typed-reasoning question: the exact U.Kind individual, its intended candidate domain and membership distinction, any U.SubkindOf comparison needed by the claim, and the C.3.2 candidate question the use actually asks. The exact KindSignature edition carries the effective U.ReferenceScheme in its claim content; the scheme and practice/source provenance are not stored on the kind.
First useful move. Write the ordinary conclusion first. For example: Pump #14 counts as a cooling pump in this plant slice because it satisfies the declared cooling-pump condition. Add a reusable declaration, admissibility detail, explicit judgment, support reference, or extension representation only when a named receiving use needs it.
Not this pattern when. Use E.24.UK when the question is admission of another durable public FPF U-kind. Use the direct subject pattern when the question is whether a physical quality, relation, registration, certification, publication occurrence, Work, or other governed condition obtains. Use A.2.6 for claim, work, or publication scope and C.29 for a claim-bearing mathematical representation.
Problem Frame
U.Kind is the admitted meta-kind whose individuals are reusable intensional classification distinctions. One kind individual is recovered by its declared candidate domain, the membership condition that distinguishes intended members from non-members, and the continuity rule for a material declaration change. A KindSignature states that content for repeated use but is not the kind itself. A current extension can change while the kind continues, and two different intensional kinds can happen to classify the same current candidates.
A practice, source, team, or locality tells a reviewer where meaning may have changed. It does not decide kind identity. When a typed use moves, compare the exact membership distinctions. Reuse the same kind when the candidate domain and operative distinction continue. If they differ, identify two kinds; only then can C.3.3 ask whether an exact directional KindBridge obtains. When local wording or interpretation also differs, F.9 may relate the corresponding F.17 cells, but it neither creates the kinds nor maps a U.ReferenceScheme as a whole. A change to the declaration's effective U.ReferenceScheme identifies another episteme under C.2.1. Judge its U.Signature membership under A.6.0 and its KindSignature qualification under C.3.2 separately; call it another edition only when the C.2.1 EpistemeEditionRelation obtains. C.3.1 separately decides kind continuity. A changed U.ContextSlice alone creates neither a kind nor a bridge.
Problem
A project often needs classification before it needs another public ontology name. If the kind, its definition, the classified candidate, a record about the candidate, and a displayed set of current members are treated as one object, a label classifies by itself, evidence availability is mistaken for criterion satisfaction, missing information proves non-membership, a table becomes an entity set, or a plan row becomes actual Work. If locality is made an identity key, the same kind also fragments across teams and sources. C.3 keeps each conclusion at its direct pattern.
Forces
Four Objects and a Pre-judgment Check
Keep these four objects separately recoverable:
Before the judgment, C.3.2 returns admissible or not-applicable. Candidate mismatch with the declared ValueKind, or a slice outside declared applicability, is not-applicable and no three-valued judgment is formed. Missing support or an unavailable dependency for an admissible candidate instead yields unknown.
Scope is not a fifth part of the kind. A KindSignature episteme may carry its own U.ClaimScope, and a separate classification assertion carries the scope of that assertion. The U.ContextSlice is an evaluation input.
Solution
Use the lightest object that answers the current typed-reasoning question.
- Recover the kind. Name the candidate domain and the operative membership distinction: what an intended member must satisfy and what separates a relevant non-member. Record the continuity rule used when that distinction changes. Keep practice/source provenance as a cue to compare definitions, not as an automatic identity key. Do not store the current use, ClaimScope, context slice, or reference scheme on the kind.
- Use C.3.1 for subkind and continuity. A
U.SubkindOffact obtains through exact criterion entailment under an aligned interpretation or through exhaustive evaluation over a deliberately closed finite domain. The facts form a preorder. Opposite facts between distinct kinds may express classification equivalence for that applicability; a consumer may order the resulting equivalence groups without identifying the kinds. - Use C.3.2 for declaration and admissible judgment. A repeated condition may justify a
KindSignature. First check candidateValueKindand applicability. Only an admissible application returnstrue,false, orunknown. - Let the governed criterion condition decide. A direct quality, relation, construction, episteme, registration, certification, publication occurrence, legal status, or other governed condition makes the criterion hold when the criterion actually names it. An observation, record, or source used merely as evidence does not constitute an independently governed condition. Use each condition's direct pattern.
- Keep four outcomes distinct.
not-applicablemeans the judgment should not be formed. For an admissible candidate, a satisfied criterion givestrue, a known failed criterion givesfalse, and missing support or an unavailable required dependency givesunknown. A guard may decline use without rewriting any of these results. - Materialize an extension only for use. A query, quantification, comparison, or review may need
KindExtension(k, slice). It represents admissible candidates judgedtrue; notation, rows, or set membership do not create an ontic collection or classification relation. - Keep scope, formality, Work, and publication separate. Formality characterizes the declaration episteme. Scope belongs to claims or capabilities.
U.Workis a kind andW : U.Workis one independently grounded dated work occurrence. Plans, logs, cards, field bundles, carriers, and rows remain their own objects.
Typed reasoning composes with F-G-R and USM in this order: recover kind compatibility; check classification admissibility and, when admissible, the exact judgment; separately check claim-scope coverage; then apply support, assurance, freshness, and any justified bridge consequence required by the receiver.
Decision Split
When typed reasoning is part of a structural construction-to-representation passage from a constructive representation or working model to a target kind or logical representation, cite StructuralCT2RTypingGroundingUnfoldingStructureBlock from B.3.5. C.3 contributes only the kind, admissibility and judgment, subkind, and bridge loci inside that B.3.5-governed local A.22.CGUS specialization. It does not create separate unfolding-structure authority and does not make a constructive trace, working-model relation, proof, evidence relation, or classification true by label. For general diagnostic recovery from an inadequate working account to the exact subject construction, use A.7.1; classification remains one possible locus rather than a general ontology-return method.
The unfolding is admitted only when the block names the starting representation, target kind or logical representation, current bridge when one is used, preserved structure, lost or collapsed structure, CL or CL^k, admissible reuse, blocked substitution, and the proof or evidence subject pattern when that stronger claim is current.
Archetypal Grounding
Bias-Annotation
C.3 counters lexical, locality, document, and ontology-growth bias. A familiar word, source label, or practice boundary supplies neither kind identity nor membership. A record used as evidence does not create an independently governed condition, while an episteme, status, or relation directly named by the criterion keeps its own governor. The kind/declaration/admissibility/judgment/extension split and the readable first move keep the remedy usable.
Conformance Checklist
Common Anti-Patterns and How to Avoid Them
- Treating a programming type, schema class, source ontology class, regulatory category, or ordinary noun as a durable public FPF U-kind.
- Treating a
KindSignatureas the kind, or attaching its formality and claim scope to the kind. - Using a world-side belongs-to predicate or minting a classification relation merely to state one judgment.
- Treating evidence availability, a schema row, or a publication form as sufficient for classification when the criterion requires a different governed condition.
- Returning
falsewhen the criterion cannot be evaluated. - Treating
KindExtensionor mathematical set notation as ontology. - Repairing a subkind counterexample by silently changing an extension table.
- Treating a plan or work record as a dated work occurrence.
Consequences
Benefits. C.3 supports local typed claims, subkind reasoning, classification, and queryable extensions without premature ontology growth or evidence-created membership.
Costs. Reliance-bearing uses must recover the kind distinction, pin the declaration and slice, check admissibility, and keep not-applicable, false, and unknown distinct.
Risks avoided. False sameness, implicit time, scope-on-kind, record ontology, accidental relation minting, kind/individual substitution, and mathematical-set overread are blocked at the first use.
Rationale
The kind, its declaration, pre-judgment admissibility, one classification judgment when admissible, and a representation of current true members answer different engineering questions and change for different reasons. Keeping them separate lets a kind continue across compatible declaration revisions, lets candidate state change an extension without changing the kind, and lets evidence or a guard change reliance without changing what makes the criterion hold.
SoTA-Echoing
Model theory, type systems, ontology engineering, and schema practice distinguish intensional declarations, candidate evaluation, extensions, and assertion scope. C.3 adapts that separation to FPF's object discipline: declaration epistemes follow A.6.0 and C.2.1, context slices and claim scope follow A.2.6, mathematical representations follow C.29, and durable kind admission follows E.24.UK.
Detail Map
C.3 is the head pattern for typed reasoning. It leaves each detailed mechanism at its direct neighboring pattern while preserving a discoverable route to that mechanism.
Do not treat this compact head pattern as the whole C.3 discipline when a case needs declaration, classification, extension, Bridge, kind-use adaptation, abstraction, or applied-guard detail. Use the neighboring C.3 pattern that defines or constrains the live detail.
Relations
- Builds on:
A.2.6context-slice and scope discipline,A.6.0reusable declaration discipline,C.2.1episteme identity, F-G-R, and direct subject patterns for candidate features. - Coordinates with:
C.3.1throughC.3.5,C.3.A,C.29,E.24.UK,A.8,A.11,F.8,F.18, and genericA.22.CGUSwhen typed reasoning is one locus in an admitted unfolding structure; coordinates withStructuralCT2RTypingGroundingUnfoldingStructureBlockonly when C.3 supplies local-kind, judgment, subkind, and bridge loci inside a structural construction-to-typed or logical projection, with any cross-local bridge remaining a bridge within that projection rather than an alternative trigger; coordinates withA.7.1for a general diagnostic return. - Does not replace: direct candidate-feature ontology, A.14 collection membership,
A.2.6scope,C.29representation use, ontic settlement inE.24, U-kind admission inE.24.UK, or naming in Part F.
C.3:End
Last Updated: 2026-09-10 — upstream FPF commit a87d0ef4 (github.com/ailev/FPF)