CONCEPT · CORROBORATION

“It found the same thing twice. Does that make it truer?”

Independent paths make a claim stronger.

Hearing the same rumour twice is repetition. Reaching the same answer from separate evidence is corroboration. This is the ordinary way a standing rises, and the only way it rises without a person.

BUILT FROM

claimsupportprovenancestandingstanding

Every word above is defined on the vocabulary page, and every concept above is a page before this one.

THE SHAPE

corroborated

ONE CLAIM, TWO INDEPENDENT PATHS

retry.ts

const MAX_ATTEMPTS = 3

retry.test.ts

expect(send).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(3)

both support the same claim

CorroborationRetries stop after three attempts is now held by two supports that were found separately. It is one claim with two reasons, not two claims that agree.

WHAT THIS CHANGES

Preston can state the three-attempt ceiling plainly instead of re-opening the question every time it reads the file. And if the test is deleted, the claim does not vanish — it drops back to one support.

What a second support actually attaches to

THE CLAIM

Retries stop after three attempts.

  1. SUPPORT 1 · FROM A READING

    The implementation caps attempts at three. This support carries its provenance: which strategy did the looking, which file it read, and when.

    retry.ts:11

  2. SUPPORT 2 · FROM A DIFFERENT READING

    A test asserts a fourth delivery is never scheduled. A separate support, on the same claim, with its own provenance.

    retry.test.ts:88

  3. SUPPORT 3 · FROM A PERSON

    Someone says the ceiling is deliberate. A third kind of support entirely — it does not cascade when the code changes, because a person having said something stays true.

    attached by a human act

  4. THE CLAIM ITSELF

    Unchanged. Same subject, same statement, same identity — which is why the second and third supports could attach to it rather than creating rivals.

    identity is the statement, not the finding

WHAT SURVIVES

Delete the test and the claim does not go with it — it drops back to what is left holding it up. Take away everything holding it up and the claim goes too. It never quietly stays true on nothing.

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