Glossary of Essential Terms and Distinctions

These entries clarify terms whose distinctions matter to the book's argument. They offer a reference for rereading, without attempting to settle the wider debates around each word. Ordinary uses remain governed by their context. For formation families and the arrangements they identify, see Appendix A, Veyn's Provisional Earth Catalog, particularly its “Alphabetical family index.”

Authority

The power or assigned role through which a decision is made, given force, or treated as binding. The book also speaks of a record's authority when an institution gives it weight in deciding what follows. The justification of its scope is a separate question; see Legitimacy.

See also Standing. Read Chapter 13, “What has been entrusted”.

Condition

A circumstance or state of affairs in which an arrangement operates, or which its operation helps produce. A condition may enable or amplify a mechanism without being that mechanism or an injury in itself. Where the word instead means a requirement for eligibility, permission, or performance, that ordinary meaning follows from the context.

See also Mechanism and Harm. Read Appendix A, “Conditions and harms”.

Consent

Authorization given with adequate information and practical freedom, for an action or arrangement within a particular scope. A recorded act does not by itself establish what was authorized, for how long, or under what terms. Participation and consultation may accompany consent without supplying it.

Read Chapter 8, “What taking part permits”, and Chapter 10, “The reach of correction”.

Consultation

A process for seeking people's views or knowledge for consideration in a decision. Its terms determine what those contributions can affect; consultation does not itself transfer the final choice to those consulted.

See also Participation and Consent. Read Chapter 8, “What taking part permits”.

Correction

A change that addresses an identified error or defect in a record, judgment, practice, or condition. Its reach depends on what was changed: correcting an account is not necessarily correcting the situation it describes. See also Repair.

Read Chapter 1, “Where seeing goes”.

Harm

An injury, deprivation, or wrong whose kind, extent, duration, and distribution require attention. Harm need not be concealed or intended, but a risk or obstacle does not establish that every feared injury occurred. Naming a harm does not explain the mechanism that produced it.

See also Condition and Mechanism. Read Appendix A, “Conditions and harms”.

Legitimacy

The justification for an arrangement or exercise of power, including the grounds for its scope and limits. When the book concerns accepted legitimacy, it asks whether people regard that power as justified; continued compliance alone does not establish that judgment.

See also Authority and Standing. Read Chapter 13, “What has been entrusted”.

Mechanism

The process through which an arrangement produces or sustains an effect. Identifying a mechanism requires an account of how it works, rather than only a name for the practice, a surrounding condition, or a resulting harm. The explanation must distinguish what actors do from any further claim about what they intend.

See also Condition and Harm. Read Appendix A, “Conditions and harms”.

Operational meaning

What a promise or expression comes to mean through what is permitted, required, rewarded, discouraged, or experienced under its name. Its declared wording is part of that inquiry, alongside the work done through its use. A difference between declaration and operation requires examination; it does not by itself establish deception or distortion.

Read Chapter 1, “What words do”.

Participation

Taking part in an activity, arrangement, or decision process. The word alone does not specify whether someone contributes information, influences an agenda, authorizes action, or controls a choice. The particular role and its practical reach matter; continued involvement need not indicate approval.

See also Consultation and Consent. Read Chapter 8, “What taking part permits”.

Perception

Noticing and making sense of something relevant to the inquiry, including a relationship among facts held in separate places. The term concerns what an observer notices or understands, rather than simply what information is available.

See also Correction. Read Chapter 1, “Obvious to whom”.

Promise

A durable public commitment concerning the terms on which people, institutions, and generations share a world. It gives the inquiry an undertaking to examine: what is owed, to whom, and through which arrangements. The commitment, the declaration expressing it, and its fulfillment are distinct objects of examination.

See also Operational meaning. Read the Prologue.

Repair

Work directed toward addressing a harm, an unmet obligation, or the arrangement that sustains it. The word may refer to a proposed response or to work carried out, so its object and status matter. Correction may be part of that work; the terms are not distinguished simply by the size of a change.

See also Correction. Read Chapter 7, Justice.

Standing

A person's position as someone whose interests or claims count, or who is entitled to a role in a decision. The context distinguishes basic moral and civic standing from eligibility or powers attached to a particular procedure.

See also Authority and Legitimacy. Read Chapter 5, Equality and Chapter 13, Standing.