The Core of Reason: A Causal Mechanism for the Self-Correction of Intelligence

This preprint presents the Core of Reason as a testable causal architecture that distinguishes Reason from Intelligence. Intelligence constructs explanations, plans, hypotheses, and methods within accepted goals and premises. Reason must additionally be capable of identifying insufficient foundations, revising goals and methods, selecting the distinction that can change a decision, testing models against reality, and retaining verified correction in subsequent cycles.

The proposed architecture connects the current coordinate of the system, its Worldview, the Compass, Intelligence, a temporary modeling workspace, independent testing, sufficiency evaluation, choice, action, and returned consequences. Particular attention is given to the formation and selection of questions, the Zero Gate separating automatic processing from full analysis, and the role of the Compass as the ultimate value criterion for evaluating direction.

The article provides operational definitions, a complete causal cycle, an engineering projection, ablation tests, and explicit falsification criteria. The experiments described in the paper have not yet been conducted; they constitute a reproducible protocol for testing the proposed architecture in autonomous artificial systems.

The manuscript is based on Foundations of Reason, version 6.7, and its engineering projection, volume 2.1.

Mihail Tkalic
ORCID: 0009-0006-9543-6414
Contact & discussion:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihail-tkalic-a493893a9