FE-012C Primitive Definitions

These definitions are provisional.

They do not imply that the primitive list is complete.

Bound

Purpose: Define the scope, boundary, or target of the reasoning task.

Allowed interpretation: Framing what is in scope before proceeding.

Examples: Define the problem. Set the objective. Bound the system.

Non-examples: Rank options. Execute a change.

Notes: Often appears early but may be implicit in some artifacts.

Observe

Purpose: Acquire information about the situation or system.

Allowed interpretation: Looking, gathering, inspecting, sensing, or recording relevant facts.

Examples: Observe the condition. Gather signals. Review findings.

Non-examples: Interpret why the facts matter. Choose an option.

Notes: Observation should remain distinct from meaning assignment when possible.

Classify

Purpose: Organize information into categories or types.

Allowed interpretation: Sort or place items into a defined structure.

Examples: Group factors. Place a case into a condition type.

Non-examples: Judge quality. Act on the system.

Notes: Strongly associated with categorical artifacts.

Interpret

Purpose: Assign meaning to observations or context.

Allowed interpretation: Explain what observations imply without necessarily building a full causal account.

Examples: Interpret context. Read implications. Abstract meaning.

Non-examples: Simply collect facts. Commit to an intervention.

Notes: May overlap with Explain in ambiguous cases.

Explain

Purpose: Develop causal or explanatory understanding.

Allowed interpretation: Trace why something happened or how elements relate causally.

Examples: Explain the cause. Build a causal chain.

Non-examples: Sort categories. Merely compare options.

Notes: Most common in diagnostic and analytical artifacts.

Generate

Purpose: Produce options, hypotheses, candidate explanations, or alternatives.

Allowed interpretation: Create a set of possible answers or actions.

Examples: Generate options. Propose hypotheses.

Non-examples: Choose the best option. Verify a result.

Notes: Can be sparse in tightly constrained procedural artifacts.

Evaluate

Purpose: Judge something against criteria, goals, or evidence.

Allowed interpretation: Assess quality, fit, severity, or adequacy.

Examples: Evaluate performance. Assess fit. Judge severity.

Non-examples: Only compare alternatives without judging them. Execute an intervention.

Notes: May compress too much if Compare and Prioritize are genuinely distinct.

Compare

Purpose: Contrast alternatives or states to identify relative differences.

Allowed interpretation: Side-by-side comparison.

Examples: Compare options. Contrast alternatives.

Non-examples: Generic evaluation without explicit relative contrast.

Notes: Currently retained as a provisional primitive because some artifacts depend heavily on explicit contrast.

Prioritize

Purpose: Order issues, options, or actions by relative importance or urgency.

Allowed interpretation: Ranking under constraint.

Examples: Prioritize tasks. Rank interventions.

Non-examples: Only evaluate without ordering. Simply communicate a result.

Notes: Important in constrained-allocation and coordination problems.

Decide

Purpose: Commit to an option or conclusion.

Allowed interpretation: Select a course of action or make a judgment.

Examples: Choose an option. Commit to a response.

Non-examples: Generate possibilities. Verify evidence.

Notes: Decision may be explicit or implied by commitment.

Act

Purpose: Change the system or initiate an intervention.

Allowed interpretation: Execute a chosen move.

Examples: Implement the action. Carry out the response.

Non-examples: Evaluate a scenario. Review outcomes afterward.

Notes: Prototype-style moves may sometimes blur action and testing.

Verify

Purpose: Test whether a claim, conclusion, or result holds.

Allowed interpretation: Check, confirm, or test the current judgment.

Examples: Verify the result. Test the hypothesis.

Non-examples: Simply observe without checking a claim. Reflect on lessons.

Notes: Often a key closure control.

Reflect

Purpose: Extract lessons or update understanding from experience.

Allowed interpretation: Review outcomes for learning.

Examples: Reflect on what happened. Capture lessons learned.

Non-examples: Immediate intervention. Initial observation.

Notes: May be underused in forward-only procedural artifacts.

Reassess

Purpose: Reopen a prior judgment when new evidence or conditions appear.

Allowed interpretation: Revise or revisit a prior conclusion.

Examples: Reassess the plan. Revisit the classification.

Non-examples: Initial evaluation without revision pressure.

Notes: Important in dynamic or iterative contexts.

Communicate

Purpose: Transmit reasoning, decisions, or relevant information to others.

Allowed interpretation: Inform, align, or report.

Examples: Communicate the plan. Share the rationale.

Non-examples: Internally evaluate. Execute the intervention itself.

Notes: Especially important in coordination-heavy artifacts.

Allocate

Purpose: Assign resources, effort, or assets to tasks or targets.

Allowed interpretation: Distribute constrained capacity.

Examples: Allocate resources. Assign effort.

Non-examples: Generic prioritization without assignment.

Notes: Included as a candidate execution-heavy primitive, not a settled one.

Coordinate

Purpose: Align actions across multiple actors, units, or systems.

Allowed interpretation: Maintain joint action coherence.

Examples: Coordinate teams. Align moving parts.

Non-examples: Single-agent execution. Pure evaluation.

Notes: Included because coordination pressure appeared in FE-012B.

Schedule

Purpose: Place actions in time or sequence windows.

Allowed interpretation: Timing or temporal planning.

Examples: Schedule work. Set timing.

Non-examples: Generic prioritization without time placement.

Notes: Still a hypothesis-level execution primitive.

Sequence

Purpose: Order actions into a necessary progression.

Allowed interpretation: Specify step order where order matters materially.

Examples: Sequence steps. Order phases.

Non-examples: Merely list tasks without dependency.

Notes: Still a hypothesis-level execution primitive.

Synchronize

Purpose: Keep parallel actions aligned in time or dependency state.

Allowed interpretation: Concurrency alignment.

Examples: Synchronize activities. Keep operations aligned.

Non-examples: Simple communication or prioritization alone.

Notes: Still a hypothesis-level execution primitive.