The Doctrine of Legitimate Knowledge (DLK)

As modern institutions, civic bodies, and AI systems increasingly influence public reasoning and decision-making, the central challenge becomes determining when knowledge is warranted to act. The DLK provides a universal framework addressing this challenge by defining the structural conditions under which knowledge earns legitimate authority. This work formalizes the concept of authorized knowledge, presents a lifecycle model of knowledge legitimacy, and offers structured tools for analyzing epistemic pathologies, accountability failures, institutional decay, and routes toward epistemic resilience. The doctrine applies across interpersonal, institutional, technological, and civic domains, and provides a normative foundation for policy, governance, and AI-alignment practices. This work is published under DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17611074