Chapter 10 The Method of Elimination: Methodological Foundations and Applications in Inferring the Origin of East Asian Modern Humans

This chapter diagnoses the epistemological crisis of the “narrative inference model” in human origins research, where multiple mutually incompatible hypotheses can equally fit the limited fossil evidence, leaving long-standing controversies unresolved. To address this crisis, the chapter systematically elaborates the logical foundation, operational definition, and application framework of the method of elimination. The method does not ask “which narrative is most plausible?” but rather “given the physical and empirical constraints of the system, which candidate regions have been excluded?” Its output is the “sole survivor under constraints”, not positive confirmation. The chapter defines three core conditions for elimination—independence, testability, and completeness—and proposes seven independent constraints (K1–K7), covering thermodynamic thresholds, energy budgets, minimum entropy production, geothermal anomalies, continuous stratigraphy, morphological proximity, and the thermal-stress driving premise. Through a four-step elimination procedure, the chapter establishes at the methodological level that Luxi (western Shandong) is the sole candidate region not excluded for the origin of East Asian modern humans. The chapter also clarifies the epistemological boundaries of the method: it does not claim absolute proof, nor does it substitute for direct fossil evidence; rather, it provides a logical framework of eliminative induction, with conclusions that are intrinsically corrigible.