Circulation

concept

Correction

Correction names the lived work of narrowing the gap between what was assumed and what is actually happening. It becomes important whenever systems, beliefs, or coordination can drift while still feeling operational. It helps preserve shared reality and learning, but can fail when every correction spawns new framing instead of updated contact with conditions. It differs from repair because correction updates belief and behavior; repair addresses damaged standing and trust. It differs from revisability because correction is the act; revisability is the designed capacity to keep correcting.

concept

Authority

Authority names who can coordinate action when full agreement is impossible. It becomes important whenever groups must move before every perspective aligns. It helps preserve direction and collective capacity, but can fail when operational power outruns justified recognition or visible consequence. It differs from legitimacy because authority is the capacity to steer; legitimacy is whether that capacity reads as earned and revisable enough to coordinate trust rather than performative compliance.

concept

Meaning

Meaning names what must remain recognizable for life together to continue. It becomes important whenever coordination outruns immediate shared presence. It helps preserve continuity across time, distance, and conflict, but can fail when inherited meaning outlives the conditions that once made it workable. In Before Certainty Arrives, meaning is what moral systems stabilize once coordination survives constraint; writing preserves meaning when oral tradition fractures at scale. In How Meaning Moves, meaning is also what people reconstruct through contact, completion, and the movement of language under pressure. It differs from interpretation because meaning is what gets held steady; interpretation is the active work of reconstruction.