
Most arguments about misinformation assume that disagreements are primarily about truth. This paper argues that a large class of contemporary disputes arise earlier: many claims circulating in public discourse are not false but unevaluable. The framework introduced here provides three diagnostic instruments for analysing the evaluability of claims: • The Φ-gate – determines whether a claim specifies a measurement pathway connecting it to observable evidence.• Z-depth – measures the number of reconstruction steps required before a claim becomes evaluable.• Access Collapse – describes structural conditions under which predicates lose meaning when observational access approaches full system resolution. Together these instruments form an epistemic type system: a pre-evaluative filter determining whether a claim is structurally ready to enter truth-evaluative discourse. This paper synthesises a four-paper research series: I – Access Collapse: A Typed Structural Boundary for Operational AccessII – Epistemic Hygiene in PracticeIII – Reconstructability, Depth, and ValidationIV – Before Truth (this paper) Applications discussed include AI evaluation, cryptographic protocols, scientific discourse, and public deliberation.
Information theory, AI evaluation, Philosophy of science, Cryptography, Epistemic hygiene, Claim evaluation, Epistemology, Knowledge systems
Information theory, AI evaluation, Philosophy of science, Cryptography, Epistemic hygiene, Claim evaluation, Epistemology, Knowledge systems
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