Operationalizing the Third Nature of Homo sapiens: A Measurement Framework for Open-Ended Goal Generation
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Humans tend to construct new ends from represented objects: making a proof, a fictional world, or a self-imposed discipline worth pursuing, and allowing an attained end to generate another. How can this process be observed and measured in the laboratory? Natural Human Philosophy (NHP) calls its biological–developmental source Third Nature. Represented real, absent, future, fictional, symbolic, and abstract objects can acquire motivational value and become inputs to further goal generation. The phenotype is established; biological–developmental nature-status (C3), proximate functional independence (C4), and functional unity (C5a) hold on current reliable support; specific higher-order organization (C5b) and incremental prediction (C6) are pending determination. This paper measures the latter two and provides further evidence routes concerning adoption of ends, state sensitivity, and acquisition conditions. No single scale or model result adjudicates all these core claims. Five core task families measure novel-goal generation, cross-domain representational reuse, motivational uptake, persistence under low learning progress, and persistence in private. A sixth battery measures components and competing explanations at full strength. A seventh test compares self-generated goals and matched positive controls for sensitivity to survival-related states and costs. State sensitivity is separated from the source of ends; indirect reproductive-motivation indicators are not treated as direct manipulations. The component set remains open, identified in an isolated exploratory sample and confirmed in held-out samples. A general higher-order configuration (E1) and interoperability–valuation coupling (E2) are tested separately; state comparisons (E3) receive independent evaluation. The framework specifies which claims change following superior, equivalent, clearly inferior, or inconclusive results. The battery has not been implemented: the paper presents proposed designs and registration requirements, without claiming preregistration or empirical validation.
Authors: Yuan, Xihao, Yuan, Haidan
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222886707
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