GoDataXh7 ph is built to be extended by clinicians, psychologists, philosophers, and classical-education specialists all have a real seat at the table, and this page is the entry point for that kind of contribution. It reconstructs the project's own Trivium & Quadrivium, contribution model the classical seven-liberal-arts framework the project borrows to keep every interpretive claim disciplined, whoever writes it.

1.0 The Trivium & Quadrivium Educational Model

Long before it trained a profession, the medieval liberal-arts curriculum trained a mind. Its first stage, the Trivium, covered three language-and-thought skills: grammar, to understand ideas clearly; logic, to tell a sound argument from a fallacy; and rhetoric, to communicate that thinking clearly and persuasively. Its second stage, the Quadrivium, covered four number-and-order disciplines: arithmetic (number in itself), geometry (number in space), music (number in time and rhythm), and astronomy (number in motion and cycles). Together the seven arts prepared a student for philosophy and theology, and, not incidentally, shaped the education of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton.

GDX_HUMAN7 reuses that same two-stage discipline as a contribution model, not just a history lesson. Before any interpretive claim (a philosophical reading, a virtue association, a clinical caveat) is written down, it passes through the Trivium: is the language precise, is the reasoning sound, is it communicated responsibly? Only then does the Quadrivium formalize it: what is measured, how is it structured, what is its rhythm and sequence, where does it sit in time. The three worked examples below apply that same discipline to an actual layer of the project.

2.0 Applying the Model: Three Worked Examples

All three examples break one concept into the same seven cells, Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric (Trivium) and Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy (Quadrivium), so a contributor can see exactly which kind of discipline a given claim still needs. Together they cover the three layers used throughout the project: a measurement instrument, an interpretive layer, and a metaphysical variable (see §3.0).

2.1 Burnout Psychometric Assessment · Measurement Instrument

2.2 Septenary Constitution · Level 1 · Physical-Etheric · Interpretive Layer

2.3 Potency → Act (a philosophical variable) · Metaphysical Variable

3.0 Integration of Perspectives

Neither example stands alone. Every claim GDX_HUMAN7 publishes moves through three distinct, explicitly labeled layers, connected by mapping that is stated up front as interpretive, never causal:

The combined report stays legible because the three layers are never merged into one number:

• Psychometric evidence, instrument, items, scores, timeframe.
• Context and body, physiological indicators and self-reports, when available.
• Interpretive reading, philosophical layers, clearly identified as such.

4.0 Contribution Matrix by Role

Activities below still need to be broken down and further detailed, this matrix is a starting map for where each discipline plugs in, not a finished scope of work.

5.0 Next Steps: Expanding the Interpretive Model (Roadmap)

Thomas Aquinas's Metaphysical Dimensions, in search of greater accuracy (roadmap, not yet implemented)

Each of the Five Ways can be decomposed into a set of more elementary metaphysical dimensions, the Thomistic concepts that underpin the argument itself (potency and act, cause and effect, contingency and necessity, essence and existence, degrees of perfection, order and finality). The goal is for these dimensions, not just the way as a whole, to eventually be associated with the psychological and physiological indicators already measured, gaining more interpretive precision.

Metaphysical Macro-Variables, 7 macro-axes (roadmap)

For a more compact interpretive architecture, the dimensions above could be grouped into seven macro-axes. Each axis synthesizes a set of concepts without turning the metaphysical content into an empirical measure.

Five Ways × Metaphysical Macro-Variables (roadmap)

How this would connect to the relational model (roadmap)

Both the Metaphysical Dimensions catalog and the Metaphysical Macro-Variables catalog would be new tables linked to the existing GDX_TA_WAY_SEP_MAP mapping between the Five Ways and the Septenary Constitution, the same relational pattern used today for the Chakras (GDX_PSY_CHAKRA), without altering the core psychometric schema.

Psychometric Behaviors × Metaphysical Dimensions, full relation table (roadmap)

The table below anticipates, variable by variable, how each already-measured psychometric behavior could relate to the metaphysical macro-variables and specific dimensions, and which way, or ways, that reading is closest to:

* In “Positive Emotions,” goodness is used in the sense of a perceived good / realization of a good, not as a moral virtue. The septenary association respects the mapping shown: Vital/Etheric for part of the positive emotions and Astral for EmocPos/EmocNeg.

6.0 Defining a new instrument oriented towards metaphysical dimensions, Finality Sample: The OT-7 Working Model

A fourth worked example takes the same discipline further: instead of applying the seven lenses to a single concept, it uses them to build a small exploratory instrument from the ground up, from a metaphysical reading in Thomas Aquinas to a draft questionnaire with a 0–5 response scale. The working paper behind it, Orientation to Finality (internal reference OT-7, dated September 26, 2026), is organized in four steps: a metaphysical concept, an observation model built on the seven liberal arts, an association with goal-directed behavior, and an exploratory measurement instrument.

6.1 Overview, How the Four Steps Connect

The model organizes one philosophical question and one set of measures without blending their different statuses.

Layers that must remain identifiable:

6.2 Step 1, The Metaphysical Variable via Thomas Aquinas

Orientation to finality can be conceptually approximated through the Fifth Way, on order and finality. The other four Ways offer questions of context, but are not scales or psychological variables.

The most direct conceptual link to “orientation to finality” sits in the Fifth Way. Applying that idea to the finality of a human action is a contemporary interpretive extension of the framework; Aquinas did not propose a scale of vital energy or a psychometric instrument based on the Five Ways. [1]

Proposed operational vocabulary. Interpretive metaphysical variable: “orientation to finality” describes, in the model, how a goal or purpose is formulated, connected to actions, and interpreted over time. The label does not assert that a metaphysical substance or energy has been detected.

Examples of questions already derived from the table above: change, “How does perceived vitality change alongside behavior?”; proximate causes, “Can sleep, effort, or context contribute?”; contingency, “Under what conditions does the pattern appear?”; degrees, “What qualitative differences exist between states?”; finality, “Toward what goal does the action seem oriented?”

6.3 Step 2, Observing Finality Through the Seven Arts

Here the medieval Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) function as analytical lenses adapted to the project, not as variables historically formulated by Aquinas. [2]

“Sharing arithmetic or logic” creates a shared language for comparing dimensions, but does not prove that vitality and a metaphysical variable are the same energy. The correspondence is initially structural and interpretive.

6.4 Step 3, Associating Trivium and Quadrivium with Behavior

The selection below focuses on three patterns close to goal pursuit: goal-directed action, self-regulation, and adaptive persistence. The literature on goal pursuit discusses processes such as resisting abandonment, recognizing opportunities, and returning to the pursuit; the specific application to the seven arts remains a hypothesis of the project. [4]

How to test this, without confusing association with causation

Collecting the three layers over the same period allows one to ask whether their patterns vary together. This can indicate an association between the measures; it does not demonstrate a cause, nor confirm a metaphysical energy. Subjective vitality is a construct studied in the psychological literature; physiological indicators are not equivalent to a metaphysical energy. [3]

This mapping is an initial hypothesis: each dimension may help organize observations, but the relations between OT-7 items and behaviors still need to be tested with data.

6.5 Step 4, Preliminary OT-7 Instrument

Seven items, one per dimension. The participant chooses a personal goal and answers with reference to the last 14 days.

The 0–5 score describes how much each statement applies to the reported experience. The scale does not measure “metaphysical energy.” For subjective vitality, one may consider using an established measure already studied in the literature, checking the language version and terms of use before applying it. [3]

6.6 Integrated Example: Step-by-Step Application

Fictional example used to illustrate the reading. It does not represent an actual participant's result, nor validation of the instrument.

Reading the example through the Five Ways

6.7 Validation and Limits: What OT-7 Still Needs

Validity is not a seal obtained from a single statistic. It depends on evidence supporting the intended interpretations and uses of the results. The AERA/APA/NCME and COSMIN guidelines are references for developing and evaluating instruments. [5,6]

Limits of this prototype:

• One item per dimension is enough to present the idea, but does not allow a robust assessment of that dimension's internal consistency.
• There are no cut-off scores, norms, diagnosis, or clinical interpretation in this document.
• If a metaphysical score were calculated directly from HRV, behavior, or psychometric responses, circularity could result: the outcome would merely reproduce the data used to create it.
• Correlation, temporal synchronization, and prediction are different empirical questions; none of them automatically turns a metaphysical interpretation into a physical measure.

Until validation exists, name the result an “exploratory orientation-to-finality profile” and report each response/dimension separately. Do not present the score as a clinical assessment or a proven measure of metaphysical energy.

References and provenance

The sources below support historical descriptions, related psychological concepts, and general measurement recommendations. They do not validate the OT-7 model, which remains an exploratory proposal.

1. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, Question 2, Article 3, “Whether God exists?” Text of the Five Ways, including motion, efficient cause, contingency/necessity, degrees, and governance/finality. New Advent, English translation of the Dominican edition, 1920. newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm
2. University of Oxford, Cabinet. “The Seven Liberal Arts.” Presents the historical division between the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music). cabinet.ox.ac.uk/seven-liberal-arts
3. Ryan, R. M., & Frederick, C. (1997). “On energy, personality, and health: Subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being.” Journal of Personality, 65(3), 529–565. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1997.tb00326.x. Subjective vitality is treated as a self-reported psychological construct; it is not equivalent to metaphysical energy.
4. Moshontz, H., et al. (2021). “Resisting, recognizing, and returning: A three-component model and review of persistence in episodic goals.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15(1), e12576. DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12576. Reference for persistence processes in episodic goal pursuit.
5. AERA, APA, & NCME (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Reference for the development, interpretation, and use of educational and psychological tests. The 2014 edition is made available open access by the authoring organizations. testingstandards.net/open-access-files.html
6. COSMIN. International initiative on the selection and evaluation of outcome measurement instruments. Its guidance on content validity emphasizes relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility of the instrument. cosmin.nl

Editorial note: “OT-7” is a provisional name used to organize this draft. Adapting the Five Ways and the seven arts to behavioral orientation is a proposal of the framework and must be described as such in presentations, instruments, and research.

7.0 Open Source for Science, Universities, and Schools (coming soon)

The project will be released free of charge as open source to support scientific communities, universities, colleges, and schools in research, teaching, and outreach in psychometrics, data science, and multidisciplinary knowledge integration. Available free on GitHub: github.com/wilsonfda/godatax.human7.

Looking for the full developer setup, environment variables, and skill-by-skill pipeline reference? See the GDX_HUMAN7 Source Development Kit.