THE CONDITION-INFERENCE COMPATIBILITY FRAMEWORK (CICF): A General Framework for Preconditions, Attribution, Inquiry, Mathematical Consistency, and Cross-Domain Divergence With the Capacity-Conditioned Attribution Paradox as the Preserved Primary Case

AbstractThis paper proposes the Condition-Inference Compatibility Framework (CICF), a general analytical framework for examining whether claims, attributions, and conclusions are consistent with their required preconditions, evidence, assumptions, and inference rules. Its generalized mechanism, the Condition-Inference Compatibility Mechanism (CICM), separates claim specification, prerequisite identification, evidence assessment, inference construction, compatibility auditing, outcome classification, and revision.The framework preserves the Capacity-Conditioned Attribution Paradox (CCAP) and the Human-Animal Status-Projection Case (HASPC) as its principal theological and epistemological case. The case examines a hypothetical inference from religious or cultural claims about human status to attributed experiences of comparative grievance in non-human animals. It asks whether an experience requiring a particular reflective capacity can be coherently attributed while that capacity is simultaneously denied, and whether the human inquiry remains legitimate when the target agent is assumed unable to understand or answer the question in its conceptual form.The paper integrates the specialized Capacity-Attribution Mismatch Mechanism (CAMM), the Outcome Differentiation and Boundary Module (ODBM), the Capacity-Bounded Inquiry Dilemma (CBID), and the Question-Answerability Separation Principle (QASP). It presents conditional logical derivations, carefully bounded mathematical representations, a state-space illustration, a cross-domain application protocol, an empirical research proposal, and explicit falsification conditions.CICF is presented as a proposed analytical architecture, not as an established universal law. Its conceptual novelty, operational validity, comparative advantage, and empirical predictions require systematic literature review, independent assessment, and appropriate domain-specific testing.Keywords: Condition-Inference Compatibility; Capacity-Conditioned Attribution; Formal Logic; Epistemology: Theology; Animal Cognition; Question-Answerability; Systems Theory: Attribution; Model Validation; Cross-Domain Generalization.