Boundary Condition Specification

Boundary Condition Specification

Systematically identify the preconditions required for a hypothesis to hold, preventing overgeneralization.

HARD-GATE

Not satisfied → stop and return error: hypothesis draft incomplete, cannot determine boundary conditions.

Pipeline

1. Precondition check: verify completeness of the hypothesis draft
2. Temporal boundary: in what time period/historical era does the hypothesis hold? Is there a time sensitivity?
3. Spatial boundary: within what geographic/cultural/organizational scope does the hypothesis hold?
4. Population boundary: to what kind of subjects does the hypothesis apply (populations, species, system types)?
5. Conditional boundary: what preconditions are required for the hypothesis to hold (technical, institutional, environmental)?
6. Exclusion conditions: explicitly list the situations where the hypothesis does not apply
7. Output structured boundary condition list

Output Format

{
  "hypothesis_id": "H1 (or hypothesis statement snippet)",
  "boundary_conditions": {
    "temporal": "Time period or duration constraints",
    "spatial": "Geographic, cultural, or organizational scope",
    "population": "Subject type, sample characteristics",
    "conditional": ["Prerequisite condition 1", "Prerequisite condition 2"],
    "exclusions": ["Situation where hypothesis does NOT apply"]
  },
  "generalizability": "narrow | moderate | broad",
  "notes": "Any additional caveats"
}

Each hypothesis draft yields 1 boundary condition object.