Prosoche v1.0
The Prosoche Methodology
Apatheia Labs operates on Prosoche v1.0: a nine-phase analytical procedure that pairs an epistemic self-audit at entry with an intellectual-integrity audit at exit, and runs three named sub-brands in between: the Fallacy Firewall (Phase 2), the eight-type contradiction taxonomy and four-phase CASCADE trace (Phases 4 and 5), and the Council of Phronesis adversarial review (Phase 7).
Prosoche was not designed in the abstract. It consolidates work previously developed under the working names Systematic Adversarial Methodology (S.A.M., 2023) and Sovereign Analyst Framework (SAF v2.x, 2024–2025); the canonical brand is now Prosoche v1.0. The procedure emerged from a specific problem: a document corpus where multiple agencies had adopted the same unverified claims, contradictions were buried in volume, and selective citation masked systematic bias. The framework exists because the problem demanded it. See the full story or explore the intellectual foundations.
Foundations
What it is built on
Four established disciplines underwrite the procedure. Each is named here, traced to the phase where it actually operates, and linked to the source that documents it — so the claim can be checked, not taken on authority.
NATO Admiralty Code
What it is
A two-axis intelligence rating that scores a source’s reliability (A–F) separately from a claim’s credibility (1–6). A1 is independently confirmed by a reliable source; F6 means neither the source nor the claim can be judged.
In Prosoche
Phase 1 (Source Architecture) rates every source A–F and every proposition 1–6. No later phase may lift a claim’s confidence above what that pair supports — which is what stops five outlets tracing to one weak origin from reading as five-fold corroboration.
Structured Analytical Techniques
What it is
The intelligence-community toolkit (Heuer & Pherson) built to defeat confirmation bias by externalising reasoning so someone other than the analyst can audit it — competing hypotheses, key-assumptions checks, structured adversarial review.
In Prosoche
The lineage of three phases: the Analyst Steel-Man (Phase 6), the Council of Phronesis adversarial review (Phase 7), and the eleven-question Intellectual Integrity Audit (Phase 8). Each is a structured check against an analyst settling on a narrative and then gathering support for it.
Formal Logic & Evidence Theory
What it is
Two adjacent disciplines: the classical apparatus of valid inference and its catalogue of fallacies, and the formal study of how evidence accumulates, conflicts, and updates belief — Bayesian inference, Dempster–Shafer, and legal evidence doctrine.
In Prosoche
The Fallacy Firewall (Phase 2) is an explicit fallacy taxonomy: invalid inference dressed as reasoning is the failure it catches. Evidence theory is the wider tradition behind the confidence discipline — the ICD-203 calibration and named-falsifiability tests in the Integrity Audit (Phase 8) exist so absence of evidence is never quietly counted as evidence of absence.
Informational Cascade Theory
What it is
The economics of how a weak or false claim acquires authority: each actor rationally defers to the apparent consensus of those before them, so the error propagates while looking more confirmed at every step (Bikhchandani; the institutional-failure literature — Vaughan, Perrow, Reason).
In Prosoche
The problem the procedure was built for, and the spine of the methodology paper. Phase 5 (Propagation Trace / CASCADE) is named for it: ANCHOR → INHERIT → COMPOUND → ARRIVE traces a propagated decision back to its origin and exposes the compounding steps the chain never audited.
Entry
Five target-type buckets
Every analysis enters Prosoche under one of five target types. The bucket is declared in Phase 0 and governs which conditional phases later run or skip.
Single document
One standalone artefact — a report, an essay, a policy paper, an article. The unit of analysis is the document itself; contradictions and shifts are surfaced within its own four corners.
Multi-document corpus
A single author or institution viewed across many outputs over time. The unit of analysis is the body of work; the procedure surfaces drift, reversal, and selective citation across the corpus.
Propagated institutional decision
Chains of authority in which a finding, judgment, or determination is inherited from a prior decision and re-applied downstream. Regulatory rulings, judicial determinations, professional-body adjudications. Phase 5 (CASCADE) runs here.
Broadcast / multimodal
Video, audio, image-led narrative, multi-modal evidence — material where rhetorical framing operates through production choices, not just text. Interviews, documentaries, livestreams, visual-led campaigns.
Legal case bundle
Court materials, depositions, exhibits, expert reports, and the procedural record around a specific matter. Evidentiary rules, citation conventions, and propagation patterns differ in kind from the other four buckets.
Procedure
The nine phases
Phases run in order. Two phases (3 and 5) are conditional on target type and carry inline applies-when / skip-when rules; the remaining seven always run.
Phase 0 — Epistemic Self-Audit
Before the source set is opened, the analyst names priors, prior outputs on adjacent material, stake in the conclusion, and target-type bucket. The baseline against which downstream drift is audited.
Phase 1 — Source Architecture
Source set assembled and rated against the NATO Admiralty Code (A1–F6) on directness, independence, internal consistency, methodological transparency, track record, conflict-of-interest exposure, and corroboration.
Phase 2 — Fallacy Firewall
Two-tier fallacy taxonomy run against the source set. Tier 1 covers universal informal fallacies; Tier 2 covers political fallacies. Each detection ships with its charitable-reading companion before adverse finding.
Phase 3 — Historical Depth Protocol
ConditionalConditional. Applies when the target has a relevant pre-history (prior statements, prior decisions, prior framings) the analyst can responsibly cite. Skips for discrete one-off material with no antecedent.
Phase 4 — Contradiction Analysis
Read more →The 8-type contradiction taxonomy: SELF, INTER_DOC, TEMPORAL, EVIDENTIARY, MODALITY_SHIFT, SELECTIVE_CITATION, SCOPE_SHIFT, UNEXPLAINED_CHANGE. Each contradiction passes a charitable-interpretation field before being rated.
Phase 5 — Propagation Trace / CASCADE
ConditionalRead more →Conditional. Applies when the target is a propagated institutional decision inherited from an upstream source. The four-phase trace ANCHOR → INHERIT → COMPOUND → ARRIVE maps each inheritance point and any compounding step the chain failed to audit.
Phase 6 — Analyst Steel-Man
The analyst drafts the strongest version of the case the target’s authors would make for their own position, written before the synthesis so the synthesis cannot quietly retreat from the steel-man’s strongest counter-arguments.
Phase 7 — Adversarial Review / Council of Phronesis
Constitutional three-branch review: Legislative (seven personas — Skeptic, Adversary, Definitional Shell-Hunter, Numerical Reconciler, Steel-Manner, Reader-of-Output, Cross-Examiner), Executive (analyst drafts, resolves, signs or vetoes), Judicial (Forensic Auditor + Stage 2 Supreme review by a distinct-session LLM advisor).
Phase 8 — Intellectual Integrity Audit
11-question audit on the final synthesis: scope adherence, evidence sufficiency, citation integrity, contradiction handling, charitable-reading discipline, fallacy exposure, framing transparency, ICD-203 confidence calibration, falsifiability, named limits, signed-off epistemic position.
Phase 4
Contradiction Analysis — the 8-type taxonomy
Every inconsistency surfaced by Prosoche is classified against an eight-type taxonomy. Classification matters because the right analytical response depends on the type of contradiction. The URL /methodology/cascade is preserved from the prior labelling; the body documents Phase 4.
A single document contradicts itself—different claims on different pages that cannot both be true.
INTER_DOCTwo or more documents make incompatible claims about the same event, person, or fact.
TEMPORALDates, sequences, or durations that are logically impossible given other established facts.
EVIDENTIARYClaims presented as factual that lack supporting evidence, or cited evidence actually contradicts the claim.
MODALITYPossibility becomes probability becomes certainty—without new evidence to justify the shift.
SELECTIVESelective citation that omits context, qualifications, or contradicting passages from source material.
SCOPEConclusions that exceed the scope of the analysis or apply findings beyond their valid domain.
UNEXPLAINEDA party changes position without explanation, or conclusions change without new evidence.
Phase 5 · Conditional
Propagation Trace — the four-phase adversarial discipline
When the target is a propagated institutional decision, the analyst traces the chain through four phases: ANCHOR → INHERIT → COMPOUND → ARRIVE. The trace is the adversarial discipline at the centre of Prosoche — reading institutional documents against the grain rather than accepting their account of themselves. The URL /methodology/sam is preserved from the S.A.M. era.
From Methodology to Lenses
The procedure produces findings. The six lenses operationalise them.