∆ DELTUM terminology

The terms below are used to make discussion easier. They are working definitions that can be refined depending on the task. They do not form a closed classification and do not replace the definitions accepted in scientific disciplines.

Core concepts

∆ DELTUM. An open community and direction of activity concerned with self-sovereignty, metaintelligence, adaptability and exploring the space of the possible.

Subject. A participant in processes who is able, to some degree, to form goals, interpret circumstances, choose actions and influence what happens.

Subjecthood. The possibility of taking part in setting one's own direction and in interacting with the conditions of one's life.

Self-sovereignty. The capacity to form, sustain and revise one's own direction while managing the decisions and actions available.

Agency. The capacity to create or choose intentions and turn them into actions that affect oneself and the environment.

Metaintelligence. A general name for the capacity to investigate, evaluate and change one's own ways of thinking. The term does not fix any particular theory or universal scale.

Reflection. Investigating one's own actions, thoughts, assumptions and motives.

Cognitive frame. The set of habitual assumptions and distinctions through which a question is perceived and explained.

Deconstruction. Taking an idea apart to reveal its assumptions, limits and internal connections.

Adaptability. The capacity to change strategies, ideas and actions in light of circumstances and new possibilities.

Change. The appearance of differences between states, properties or relations.

Transformation. A change in organisation, way of acting or relations that may affect the original conditions and rules.

Development. A change judged to widen or qualitatively improve possibilities relative to certain criteria. Not a synonym for any change.

Actual. What is present or available in the situation under consideration right now.

Imaginable. What can be pictured, regardless of whether it can be done.

Potential. What may become available under certain conditions.

Realisable. That for which sufficient conditions exist or can be created.

Space of the possible. The totality of actions and directions that may be available to a subject under given or changing conditions.

Freedom. A concept with many meanings; ∆ pays particular attention to the real conditions for meaningful choice and action.

Limitation. A condition that narrows the possible actions or changes in a particular context.

Anti-dogmatism. Readiness to subject any position, including one's own, to criticism and revision on the basis of arguments and evidence.

Incompleteness. The position that the current state should not be considered final without sufficient grounds.

How to use this glossary

If the meaning of a term is contested, participants can clarify the context and propose a working definition for that particular discussion. Agreeing with a definition does not yet mean agreeing with the conclusions drawn from it.

See ontological bearings and methodology.