`incommensurability INSTANCE_OF epistemology` fails: incommensurability is a concept epistemology *studies*, not a kind of epistemology — a topic stands to its field as subject-matter, and if any edge is warranted it is DEPENDS_ON or none. Likewise `icon INSTANCE_OF iconicity` fails: iconicity is a property an icon *has*, not a class it belongs to — a thing is never an instance of its own attribute. INSTANCE_OF answers exactly one question: *is X a specific kind of Y, such that a competent speaker would call X "a Y"?*
III. Edges — the which-came-first test
Law 9a: A topic is not an instance of its discipline, and a thing is not an instance of its own property (ratified 2026-07-20).
`incommensurability INSTANCE_OF epistemology` fails: incommensurability is a concept epistemology *studies*, not a kind of epistemology — a topic stands to its field as subject-matter, and if any edge is warranted it is…
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