The Essential Definition of Sacrifice: Reverse Derivation and Subjectivity Verification Based on Language Usage Habits

Author Information Author: Baichen Yi Affiliation: Independent Researcher, Xi'an 710000, Shaanxi, China ORCID: 0009-0008-6242-7743 Corresponding Author: Baichen Yi Email: [email protected] Conflict of Interest Statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this article. Abstract Through reverse derivation of human language usage habits, this article clarifies for the first time the unambiguous and verifiable essential definition of "sacrifice": sacrifice is an act in which an individual voluntarily pays self-interest cost F driven by a self-generated expected goal Y. This definition includes four indispensable core elements: self-generated expectation, voluntary choice, self-cost, and goal orientation. On this basis, this article completes the strict distinction of three key boundaries: self-destruction without self-generated expectation is suicide rather than sacrifice; self-interest loss driven by exogenous expectation is moral coercion rather than sacrifice; acts whose costs are imposed on others are aggression rather than sacrifice. This article further proves that sacrifice has strict subjectivity: the same act can be defined as sacrifice or non-sacrifice from the anchor framework of different subjects. There is no objective standard transcending all subjects that can adjudicate "whether this is actually a sacrifice". This article makes no value judgments and only clarifies the concept itself. It provides a testable definitional starting point for the conceptual confusion about the nature of sacrifice that has persisted for two thousand years, and offers a unified logical foundation for all subsequent related research. Copyright License This preprint is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License. Under the conditions of proper attribution, non-commercial use, and no modified derivation of the original text, global sharing and redistribution are permitted. Special Authorization Statement: The author specifically authorizes any individual or institution to translate the full text or part of this article into other languages. The translated version must retain the core logic of the original text and indicate the original source and author information. The full license agreement can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Series Paper Positioning Statement This article is the fourth application paper of the MFY Three-Variable Steady-State Hypothesis series. The core framework of the MFY hypothesis originates from a 12-month extreme case of psychological system collapse and self-healing without external professional intervention. The complete definition, derivation rules, and first-principles construction process of the M-F-Y-F-M core spiral ascending model are detailed in the first paper of the series [1].The systematic test of the cross-domain applicability of the MFY hypothesis is detailed in the second paper [2], and the clinical cross-validation in the field of chronic insomnia is detailed in the third paper [3].The core positioning of this article is to test the matching and explanatory power of the M-F-Y-F-M core spiral ascending model at the level of interaction between individual and group systems, and it is the first cross-validation study of the hypothesis framework in the field of social sciences.