Criteriology: A Preliminary Analytical Concept

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This report records the initial formulation of criteriology as a preliminary analytical concept for examining the role of criteria in evaluation and decision-making across disciplinary and institutional contexts.

The report introduces criterion, criteria-lessness, criteria failure, and criteria breach as provisional distinctions and considers how insufficiently explicit or operationalised criteria may affect evaluation, documentation, and decision structures. These formulations represent an early stage in the development of the framework and should not be read as its final or consolidated terminology.

Subsequent work has further differentiated the framework through concepts concerning evaluative structure, identifiability, reconstructability, reviewability, documentation, classification, and competence relations. Current consolidated definitions should therefore be consulted in Key Analytical Terms in Criteriology and Decision Structure.

The report is exploratory and does not establish a new discipline, empirical validation, causal conclusions, or normative authority.

Part of the community: Self-Matryoshka Analytical Framework (S-MAF) and Criteriology Research