Terminological Glossary of the Intellectual Modeling Methodology

The conceptual construct that represents the founding architecture of a human group. In Tunisia, it consists of Islamic doctrinal centrality, a history extending from Carthage to the Hafsids, and the Arabic language.

The short or distinctive name used in circulation and in reference to a project, methodology, or system, while the scientific or official name remains the complete definitional reference. The common/trading name of the methodology is: مَنْهَج | MANHAJ, while its official name remains: Intellectual Modeling Methodology.

The reference that occupies, in the model, the coordinate origin $(0,0,0)$ around which the conceptual domain is organized. It determines the reference relative to which values, ideas, relations, and meanings are defined, without implying that it directly creates every meaning.

A derivative movement in meaning, proceeding from a known origin or reference toward particles, details, and dependent relations. In the mathematical model, it is represented as a derivative function in meaning, rather than as a mere accumulation of information over time.

An integral movement in meaning that gathers dispersed fields and details and reconnects them toward overall foundation. In the mathematical model, it is represented as an integral function in meaning.

The domain within which concepts, relations, and positions of meanings are organized relative to the reference on which the model is based. The content of a concept’s meaning is determined when the concept is deployed within a particular conceptual domain; the domain itself may also change and its change can be modeled separately.

The content of a concept. This content is determined when the concept is deployed within a particular conceptual domain. In the methodology, meaning is not understood separately from the concept that carries its content or from the domain within which that content is determined.

Three levels of abstraction for examining one and the same meaning: meaning as material in terms of its reference content, meaning as path in terms of the change in the value of that content over time, and meaning as dialectic in terms of the process that operates on its content and produces its change and reproduction.

The content of meaning in its reference form at the coordinate origin defined by the model. “Initial” describes its relation to the reference origin; it does not mean that it is the first meaning in chronological order.

The value of meaning content at a given temporal position along its path, where $t$ is the temporal coordinate used to trace changes in the content. A vector representation is adopted so that the model covers both one-dimensional and multidimensional cases.

Within the Intellectual Modeling Methodology, a concept in itself is a shared, non-temporal linguistic common and is not reducible to a point or a node. When the meaning of a concept is deployed within a particular conceptual domain, the position of that meaning content is determined by coordinates relative to the origin. Within a fixed conceptual domain, the meaning can be represented by the positional vector $\mathbf{M}(t)\equiv\mathbf{P}(t)$, allowing its change and relation to the reference to be studied.

A unit representing a determined point within a conceptual domain when the meaning under consideration has been defined by coordinates. The node does not mean that the concept itself is a node; it is the coordinate placement of meaning within the domain that allows it to be represented as a point or node that can be described, related, and measured.

The structural linkage through which cognitive, conceptual, cultural, and operational relations connect individuals or groups to centers of meaning and reference. Every immaterial linkage grows exponentially as the relationship continues and interactions accumulate. What appears of this growth varies according to the time span observed and measured, not according to whether the linkage is exponential or non-exponential.

Systems that affect the mental structure of the subject or recipient, notably education, cultural formation, and media. They are not limited to these circles; other systems may operate at different levels of influence. They may contribute to preserving the original reference or to reconfiguring the coordinates through which meaning is formed and attached to another reference.

The process by which the coordinates of an individual or group are displaced from its original doctrinal centrality and reattached to another centrality, producing a structural alienation in which dependency may be experienced and reproduced under labels such as modernization, adaptation, or progress.

A state of discourse in which the movement of thought produces no new cognitive value because the meaning being processed has become static. Its mathematical representation is associated with the derivative of a constant, whose derivative is zero; discourse then becomes repetition rather than construction.

A functional alternative to the term “elites.” They are divided into thinking actors, who establish and build a centrality, and reattachment actors, who participate in transferring ready-made models and reattaching them to another social or conceptual context.

University professors, graduates, and specialists working in the fields of the humanities, whose cognitive function consists in producing, studying, analyzing, interpreting, teaching, and circulating humanities knowledge. Within the Intellectual Modeling Methodology, they are actors operating within the epistemic field through the processing and reproduction of knowledge and its connection to the references and models that frame it. The term is defined by the field of knowledge and the person’s function in processing it, rather than by a social or institutional title.

Specialists working in the fields of Islamic knowledge, including Qur’anic studies, Hadith, jurisprudence and its principles, and other fields of Islamic learning, whose cognitive function consists in producing, studying, analyzing, interpreting, teaching, and circulating this knowledge. Within the Intellectual Modeling Methodology, they are cognitive actors operating within the Islamic field through the processing and reproduction of knowledge and its connection to its references and foundations. The term is defined by the field of knowledge and the person’s function in processing it, rather than by a social or institutional title.

The individual is the unit through which the conceptual domain becomes embodied in action and through which the domain’s productions may be reproduced. The dependent thinker is not necessarily someone who does not think or criticize; rather, it is someone who operates within a conceptual domain and conditions of thought production that they did not participate in establishing, so that their questions, criteria, or intellectual production remain connected to a reference framework that has not been subjected to foundational examination.

A law requiring the approach to a phenomenon to begin from the centrality of the system and the idea, rather than from the centrality of the sample or partial case. It requires moving to a higher level of abstraction and viewing an action as a temporal and relational path rather than an isolated point.

It divides methodological inquiry into two directions: a priori inquiry examines foundations and establishment before accepting the existing path, while a posteriori inquiry operates within the existing epistemic field after accepting its theoretical framing. The a priori direction is associated with integral, thought-based movement, while the a posteriori direction is associated with derivative, knowledge-based movement.

The methodological position in which methodological inquiry precedes disciplinary cognitive activity at the level of foundation. It examines the conditions of existence of an epistemic field, its references, and the rightness of approaching it before moving to the production of detailed knowledge. This priority is an actual ordering of inquiry: foundations, references, and rightness are examined first, followed by the study of knowledge and details within the field after its establishment has been accepted. The a priori examination may be undertaken again later if the establishment or references of the field become subject to review.

It determines whether a field, action, or path is permissible in the first place before its details are studied cognitively. Rightness is not the same as scientific validity: knowledge can study a field precisely after entering it, whereas rightness precedes the formation of the field of inquiry itself. Its rule is: “What is not permissible cannot have valid details.”

It establishes the origin as the reference relative to which the positions of meaning content, relations, systems, and behaviors within the conceptual domain are determined. In the model, doctrinal centrality is the reference that occupies this origin.

It states that overall mental movement consists of two complementary paths: knowledge as a derivative movement from a known origin or reference toward particles, details, and dependent relations; and thought as an integral movement that gathers dispersed fields and details and reconnects them toward overall foundation.

It states that every immaterial linkage grows exponentially as the relationship continues and interactions accumulate. What appears of this growth varies according to the time span observed and measured, not according to whether the linkage is exponential or non-exponential.

It rests on the mathematical rule $\frac{d}{dx}(C)=0$ when $C$ is a closed epistemic constant whose meaning is not re-derived within the system. This does not mean that every fixed reference equals zero; it refers specifically to the epistemic constant whose meaning is not re-derived within the system.

When the meaning of a concept is deployed within a fixed conceptual domain, its meaning content can be represented by the vector $\mathbf{M}(t)\equiv\mathbf{P}(t)$, and the reference meaning by $\mathbf{M}_0$. Change relative to the reference is initially represented by $\Delta\mathbf{M}(t)=\mathbf{M}(t)-\mathbf{M}_0$, while the final measurement is determined according to the nature of the dimensions of meaning.