Glossary: the words you need first

--- title: Glossary: the words you need first source: https://pfadethik.de api: https://pfadethik.de/api/content license: CC BY 4.0 license-url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright: © 2026 KIKOLAUS (Nikolaus Reinelt) kikolaus-url: https://kikolaus.info generated: 2026-10-02T02:29:03.618Z version: 1790908143618 (2.10.2026 02:29:03) --- # Glossary: the words you need first Short explanations for reading Path Ethics ## I. STARTING TO LOOK ### Path A connected development that has a history and can continue in different ways. A river, a school, a language or a technical system can be examined as a path. ### Path / trajectory In Path Ethics, a path is an organised continuity of processes whose history, relationships and capacities shape how it can continue. A trajectory describes a particular observed or possible course of that development. For example, an enrolment trajectory describes one aspect of a school’s history, not the whole development of its teaching and organisation. This is a distinction in this framework’s terminology, not an exclusive definition of either English word. ### Path ethics An approach that asks what helps or harms a path’s ability to shape its course, relate to others and continue through time. A-A-P keeps the initials of the German terms Autonomie, Anschlussfähigkeit and Persistenz. In English: autonomy, connectivity and persistence. ## II. THE THREE QUESTIONS ### Autonomy How far can a path help shape what happens next, rather than being directed entirely from outside? ### Connectivity Which relationships enable a path, and which relationships limit or exploit it? ### Persistence How can a path remain capable and recognisable through time and change? ## III. CHANGE AND CONTINUATION ### Transductive persistence Continuing by changing in a way that carries an important pattern forward. A school may change rooms or routines while retaining its educational life. ### Rigid persistence Keeping a form by resisting change. It can look stable while making learning or adaptation impossible. ### Persistence illusion A system can look stable from the outside while its capacities and relationships are weakening inside. ## IV. RELATIONSHIPS ### Constructive connectivity (A⁺) A relationship that gives the connected paths more room to act, learn or continue. ### Destructive connectivity (A⁻) A relationship that may look efficient or close but weakens another path’s ability to act or continue. ### Infrastructure path A path on which many others depend, such as water, climate, communication or transport. Damage to it can spread widely. ## V. CAREFUL ASSESSMENT ### Path profile A reasoned description of a path using autonomy, connectivity and persistence. It is not a single score. ### Path Impact Assessment (PIA) A way to ask what a planned decision will strengthen or weaken, who depends on it and whether harm can be repaired. ### System boundary The practical decision about what belongs in the analysis and what counts as its surroundings. It should always be stated openly. ## VI. VALUE AND RESPONSIBILITY ### Directedness The fact that a process takes a course and develops possibilities. It does not mean that every path consciously wants a goal. ### Reflexive intentionality The human ability to consider reasons, revise goals and take responsibility for effects. It is especially relevant when people design or govern systems. ### Anti-path A proposed description for a pattern whose continuation depends mainly on damaging other paths. It requires evidence, not just a label. ## VII. PHILOSOPHICAL CONNECTIONS ### Conatus Spinoza’s word for a thing’s effort to continue in its being. It helps introduce the question of why continuation might matter. ### Individuation Simondon’s name for becoming an individual through an ongoing process. It helps show how a path can continue by changing. ### Emergence When a pattern arises from many interactions and is not produced by one part alone, as with a language or a community practice. ## VIII. OPEN LIMITS ### Substrate independence The proposal that the same questions can be asked of biological, social and technical paths. It does not mean that their differences no longer matter. ### Inter-rater reliability A test of whether different people use an assessment method in similar ways. It tests the tool; it does not settle every ethical question.