ARM-3 Anthropological Rationality Model
ARM-3 · Publications · Working Paper Series

Theory as an open research architecture.

The papers document the canonical ARM-3 foundation and its independent theoretical extensions. The page also represents the active research programme: planned work remains visible while published versions become directly available as PDFs.

Core Paper + Research ThreadsEN canonical · DE authorizedVersioned PDF Releases
Foundation Paper

The canonical foundation paper.

The canonical foundation paper. It fixes the terminology, model architecture and testable starting assumptions.

COREPublished
Foundation Paper

ARM-3: Anthropological Rationality Model — A Theoretical Framework for Cognitive Capacity, Activation, Model Protection, and Evidence-Sensitive Revision

Canonical Foundation v1.1.3: separation of Cognitive Capacity, Cognitive Activation, and epistemic behavior; MC, MRC, TE, TA, and TS; MPP as a theoretical envelope rather than a score; CF/EMC as candidate regulators; normative identification of model protection; H1–H7, causal testing, measurement architecture, and explicit disconfirmation criteria. Legacy scores and 16 reference profiles are not part of the reconstructed Core.

Versionv1.1.3
Publication2026-10-14
ReferenceEnglish
TranslationDeutsch
EN · Download PDFDE · Download PDF
Working Paper Series · Research Architecture

The theory advances through explicit research lines.

The Working Paper Series organizes the theoretical development of ARM-3 across mechanisms, dynamics, applications, and empirical testing. Each research line develops an independent, in-principle testable thesis.

Mechanisms

Micro-mechanisms that determine how cognitive capacity is translated into epistemic behavior, protected or revised.

THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Cognitive Activation vs. Epistemic Direction

High cognitive activation does not determine what that capacity is used for: revision, analysis or rationalization.

CADirectionPerformance
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Model Protection as Epistemic Defense

How existing models are protected under threat and why high cognitive capacity can make model protection more effective.

Model ProtectionDefenseRationalization
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Belief Revision and Model Updating

Under which conditions models are genuinely revised and when evidence is rejected, reinterpreted or merely assimilated.

RevisionEvidenceUpdating
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Causal Reasoning and Rationalization

Examines how the three ARM-3 modes process cause, effect and justification, and how model protection may distort causal interpretation.

CausalityExplanationRationalizationCounterfactuals
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Ego Threat, Offense and Self-Image Binding

How offense, status loss, identity threat and self-image binding alter epistemic processing and revision costs.

Ego ThreatStatusSelf-Image
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Ego as Selective Interface

The ego as a selective access and ordering structure between psychological deep structure and the momentary conscious self-model.

EgoSelectionSelf Model
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Deep Structure and Access

Historically accumulated psychological deep structure, implicit contents and the conditions under which conscious access may broaden.

Deep StructureAccessImplicit
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Rational Intelligence vs. Rationalization Capacity

The thesis that intelligence can support both rational insight and sophisticated rationalization and therefore cannot be equated with epistemic rationality.

IntelligenceRationalityRationalization
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Mechanisms

Metacognition and Epistemic Self-Monitoring

The role of metacognition, calibration and the ability to make one’s own reasoning process itself an object of scrutiny.

MetacognitionCalibrationMonitoring
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending

Dynamics

How epistemic modes change across situations and the life course, stabilize, sediment and form developmental trajectories.

THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Lifecycle of Epistemic Rationality

Ontogenetic development, typical shifts in epistemic strategies and the role of experience, metacognition and model consolidation across the life course.

LifecycleDevelopmentEDT
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

State vs. Trait in Epistemic Modes

Which ARM-3 characteristics are relatively stable, which are situational, and how disposition and context jointly produce observable modes.

StateTraitContext
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Reference Types as Attractor States

Reference types not as rigid personalities but as attractor states within a dynamic epistemic system.

AttractorsReference TypesStability
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Dynamic Personality and State Transitions

How people move between epistemic modes and why certain transitions become more likely under particular pressures.

TransitionsContextDynamic Mode
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Sedimentation of Epistemic Direction

Repeatedly dominant epistemic directions leave long-term structural traces and alter the starting conditions of future states.

SedimentationTrajectoryDeep Structure
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Ego Attenuation and De-Centering

How attenuation of dominant ego-selection may alter access to autobiographical, implicit and deeper psychological structures.

De-CenteringEgo AttenuationAccess
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Dynamics

Breakdown, Rigidity and Blocked Development

How blockages, increasing rigidity and failed revision can alter developmental trajectories and stabilize dysfunctional attractors.

RigidityBlockageDevelopment
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending

Applications / Extensions

Philosophical, anthropological and social-theoretical extensions built on the core model.

THREADPlanned
Extensions

Whirlpool, Neurognosis and Epistemic Escape

The whirlpool metaphor as a model of social internalization, heteronomy and autonomy, depth of consciousness, lateral exit and return to epistemic autonomy.

WhirlpoolNeurognosisAutonomy
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Mortality and the Direction of a Life

Mortality, radical self-confrontation, life review and the scales as a metaphor for the long-term direction of a sedimented life structure.

MortalityLife ReviewDirection
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Social Production of Rationalizans

How social systems, institutions, group identity, status and incentive structures can produce or stabilize Rationalizans behavior.

SocietyGroupRationalizans
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Normative Erosion under Chronic Stress

How prolonged crises, declining trust and collective rationalization can fragment shared norms and reinforce normative erosion.

PolycrisisNormative ErosionReciprocity / TrustCollective Rationalization
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Identity Formation and Revision Costs

How epistemic models become part of personal identity and thereby increase their later costs of revision.

IdentityCommitmentRevision Cost
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Epistemic Autonomy and Social Conformity

Self-determination of thought in relation to group pressure, norms and socially inherited structures of reality.

AutonomyConformityGroup Pressure
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Sober Freedom Rationalism

Freedom not as absence of constraint, but as capacity for revision, self-determination and responsible epistemic autonomy.

FreedomResponsibilityAutonomy
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Second-Order Commitment and Autonomy

The paradox of high revisability alongside strong meta-commitment to autonomy: rational self-determination or defensive protection against commitment?

Second-Order CommitmentAutonomyRevisabilityDefensive Non-Commitment
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
THREADPlanned
Extensions

Growth, Withering and Rational Regeneration

Examines how withering can be accepted and transformed into rational regeneration – including fanaticism as failed transformation.

Growth BiasPhilosophy of WitheringRational RegenerationFanaticism / Failed Transformation
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending

Empirics

The transition from theoretical model to systematic operationalization, testing and possible falsification.

THREADPlanned
Empirics

Operationalization and Validation of ARM-3

Operationalizing and testing ARM-3: measurement models, state/trait separation, reliability, invariance, incremental validity and falsification.

ValidationMeasurementFalsifiability
EN · PDF pendingDE · PDF pending
Integrative Thesis · Mechanisms ↔ Dynamics

From deep structure to epistemic direction — and back.

This extension links ego, deep structure, sedimentation and de-centering: the conscious self is treated as selective access to a historically accumulated structure. Repeated modes feed back into that structure; attenuation of dominant ego-selection may alter access to it.

Momentary insight can change direction. It cannot retroactively erase the structure produced by the path already taken.
Deep Structure→Ego / Self Model→Epistemic Mode→Experience & Action
↺Repeated epistemic modes sediment back into deep structure
Publication Architecture

From the core model to empirical testing.

Foundation

Canonical framework

Mechanisms

Activation · protection · revision · causality · ego · deep structure

Dynamics

Lifecycle · state/trait · attractors · transitions · sedimentation

Applications / Extensions

Neurognosis · mortality · society · normative erosion · identity · autonomy · growth · withering · regeneration

Empirics

Operationalization · validation · falsification

Publication standard

Versioned, citable, bilingual.

Published language versions remain separate PDFs but share paper number, version and publication date. English is the canonical reference; German is the authorized translation.

EN

Canonical Reference

Official reference version for citation and international scholarly use.

DE

Authorized Translation

Corresponding German version with the same publication metadata.

PDF

Stable Download

Published files become directly accessible from the respective research thread.