The principle

Split-Domain Cognition

A principle for keeping language work and judgement work structurally apart — in tools, practices, and institutions reasoning about human work.

Read the principle Adopt SDC

When language work and judgement work are fused in a single call, certain failures appear reliably: verdicts that cannot be audited, descriptions that smuggle evaluation, rubrics that cannot be taught, drift under pressure, sycophancy in machines. SDC is the refusal of that collapse.

The split: language work and judgement work held apartTwo columns hold two kinds of work, each with its own register. Between them, an unfilled gap — the refusal to fuse.DOMAIN · 01DOMAIN · 02languagejudgementa single, accountable cutVERDICT · ISSUED · v1G A Pdescribes; measures; renders visibledecides; refuses; admits
PlateTwo domains of cognitive work, held structurally apart. The architecture is the refusal.
01 · Preamble

The default we refuse

The tacit collapse SDC names — language and judgement happening in the same breath — stated plainly.

Read02 · In brief

The principle, condensed

A one-page condensation of the canonical claim, its mechanism, and what the architecture protects.

Read03 · Variants

Domains worked out

Animal rights, curation, user research, urban planning, psychiatric diagnosis, data work, talent valuation, the cognitive scale — eight variants drafted, more coming.

See the catalogue04 · Adoption

The four forms of follow

Support, reference, alignment, derivation. Each with different honesty conditions. Each with a badge.

See the badges