Coherence, Correspondence, Calibration: A Meta-Epistemology Applied to Austrian Economics

Austrian Economics (AE) has long emphasized dispersed knowledge, subjective valuation, and spontaneous order. Yet its core methodological tool—praxeology—remains a coherence-dominant, deductive framework with limited mechanisms for empirical testing or adaptive revision. As a result, Hayek’s concept of catallaxy has remained largely theoretical: a compelling account of decentralized coordination without the epistemic machinery needed to operate in high-complexity environments.

This paper develops the Coherence–Correspondence–Calibration (CCC) Framework as a reasoning-based, meta-epistemological model for clarifying the justificatory structure of AE. This work argues that stable adaptive systems require three things: coherence, correspondence, and an explicit calibration axis. Mises grounds the system in praxeology, which provides strong deductive coherence, and markets supply partial inductive correspondence through decentralized feedback, yet these empirical signals do not play a formal recalibrating role. Catallaxy thus remains conceptually rich but methodologically under-specified.

The CCC framework shows how an abductive calibration axis—common to scientific inference and contemporary learning architectures—can integrate deductive structure with empirical responsiveness without departing from Austrian methodological commitments. This lens helps explain why praxeology, while internally rigorous, functions as a non-generative epistemology.

CCC does not replace Austrian methodology but complements it by clarifying the conditions under which coherence, correspondence, and calibration jointly support stable economic inference. It thereby provides a structured way to reinterpret catallaxy as an epistemic process and to identify the minimal reasoning architecture required for its realization. The paper concludes by arguing that future decentralized intelligence systems—including distributed AI markets—will increasingly depend on such tri-modal epistemic architectures.

If you're interested in the framework or slides, they are available here and will be updated as the project develops.