Critical Assessment and the Articulation of Critical Validity: The Heretical Retrospective Theory Validation of Disjuncture Validity. A Presentation Summary

This presentation summary accompanies a talk given at the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society, Durham University (Durham, November 17, 2026), previewing a chapter for the edited volume The New Measurement Heretics. It introduces retrospective theory validation (RTV), a method for validating theoretical frameworks from studies already written. The summary describes a route to validation for Critical frameworks, situated in Critical Assessment and among forms of research heresy. RTV adapts retrospective validation from medical research to test Disjuncture Validity and the Generalized Disjuncture-Response Dialectic against existing literature. It closes on where the techniques may apply and how RTV can democratize theory validation.