{ "model": { "rank": 2942, "code": "thing-q1395219", "model_id": "vr.tr.skepticism", "name": "skepticism", "purpose": "Let an agent explain skepticism in its philosophical and scientific senses, distinguish evidence-based skepticism from denialism and pseudoskepticism with attribution, describe skeptical traditions and organisations, and present contested applications neutrally.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1395219/", "tier": 2, "score": 94, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "pseudoskepticism", "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy", "distrust of centralized finance", "anti-mask movement", "viral denialism", "Biblical teaching on skepticism", "moral skepticism", "philosophical skepticism", "euroscepticism", "religious skepticism", "vaccine hesitancy", "Semmelweis reflex", "epistemology (in a broad sense of rejection)", "neo-Pyrrhonism", "euroscepticism in France", "euroscepticism in the Czech Republic", "euroscepticism in Ireland", "Eurorealism", "euroscepticism in the United Kingdom", "euroscepticism in Poland", "hard Euroscepticism", "parental vaccine hesitancy", "COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy", "Vaccine hesitancy in the world", "Great Awakening Rally", "CEASE therapy" ], "aliasCount": 26, "merged": 26, "knownIn": 94, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1395219", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1395219", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T00:30:19Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1395219", "registryId": "vr.tr.skepticism", "name": "skepticism", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1395219/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.skepticism", "name": "skepticism", "purpose": "Let an agent explain skepticism in its philosophical and scientific senses, distinguish evidence-based skepticism from denialism and pseudoskepticism with attribution, describe skeptical traditions and organisations, and present contested applications neutrally.", "definition": "An attitude of doubt or suspended judgement toward claims until adequate evidence is provided, ranging from philosophical skepticism about the possibility of knowledge to scientific skepticism that evaluates claims by evidence and method; the term is also applied, by observers, to doubt directed at scientific or public health consensus, such as vaccine hesitancy or denial of established findings, which scientists and scholars distinguish from evidence-based skepticism, and this entry presents these distinctions with attribution.", "what_it_is_for": "Doubt pending evidence.", "affordances": [ "explain philosophical and scientific skepticism", "distinguish from denialism with attribution", "describe traditions and organisations", "present contested applications neutrally" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Evidence-based doubt", "Suspended judgement", "Method-oriented", "Contested applications" ], "appearance": "Not physical; an epistemic attitude.", "visual_identification": [ "Doubt until evidence", "Philosophical or scientific", "Cynicism assumes bad motives; denialism rejects evidence" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "ancient and modern philosophical skepticism", "scientific skepticism", "religious skepticism", "skeptical organisations and movements", "contested uses such as science denial labelled as skepticism" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "tendency", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "superstition", "why": "beliefs skeptics examine" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "astrology", "why": "a practice examined by skeptics" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "contradictory", "why": "logical evaluation of claims" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Scientific method and evidence standards", "Public health communication guidance", "No regulation of the attitude" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Conflating skepticism with denialism", "Partisan framing of public health debates", "False balance on settled science" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What skepticism is.", "rationale": "Philosophy.", "layers": [ { "id": "philosophy", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophical skepticism.", "findings": [ { "id": "philosophy-finding", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Philosophy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main forms of philosophical skepticism, from Pyrrhonism to modern epistemology, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific philosopher?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "scientific", "name": "Scientific", "description": "Scientific skepticism.", "findings": [ { "id": "scientific-finding", "name": "Scientific", "description": "Scientific.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is scientific skepticism, and how do skeptical organisations evaluate claims?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific organisation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguish", "name": "Distinguish", "description": "Skepticism versus denial.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "denialism", "name": "Denialism", "description": "Denialism and pseudoskepticism.", "findings": [ { "id": "denialism-finding", "name": "Denialism", "description": "Denialism.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do scientists and scholars distinguish evidence-based skepticism from denialism and pseudoskepticism, and what criteria do they use?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral while accurately reporting scientific consensus?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "health", "name": "Health", "description": "Public health contexts.", "findings": [ { "id": "health-finding", "name": "Health", "description": "Health.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do health bodies and researchers describe vaccine hesitancy and related movements, and what do they recommend for communication?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for personal medical advice, which needs a clinician?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Practising skepticism.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "evaluate", "name": "Evaluate", "description": "Evaluating claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evaluate-finding", "name": "Evaluate", "description": "Evaluation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can a claim be evaluated skeptically using evidence, source quality and logical analysis?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which entry fits critical thinking?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "religion", "name": "Religion", "description": "Religious skepticism.", "findings": [ { "id": "religion-finding", "name": "Religion", "description": "Religion.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is skepticism treated within and toward religious traditions, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of skepticism.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did skeptical traditions develop from antiquity to modern skeptical movements?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can skepticism and critical thinking be taught?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should scientific skepticism be a separate entry?", "How should philosophical sources be linked?", "How should misinformation research be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a skepticism, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain skepticism in its philosophical and scientific senses, distinguish evidence-based skepticism from denialism and pseudoskepticism with attribution, describe skeptical traditions and organisations, and present contested applications neutrally.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: pseudoskepticism, COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, distrust of centralized finance, anti-mask movement, viral denialism, Biblical teaching on skepticism, moral skepticism, philosophical skepticism, euroscepticism, religious skepticism, vaccine hesitancy, Semmelweis reflex.", "26 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 94 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a skepticism, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "pseudoskepticism", "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy", "distrust of centralized finance", "anti-mask movement", "viral denialism", "Biblical teaching on skepticism", "moral skepticism", "philosophical skepticism", "euroscepticism", "religious skepticism", "vaccine hesitancy", "Semmelweis reflex" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 94 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 26 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one skepticism from another, and a skepticism from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a skepticism sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a skepticism from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a skepticism passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a skepticism between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a skepticism, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a skepticism is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What skepticism is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of skepticism are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is skepticism operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of skepticism and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of skepticism?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as skepticism?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a skepticism came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a skepticism and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a skepticism is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a skepticism, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a skepticism, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a skepticism is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }