Viable Freedom: A Life-Grounded Framework for Discernment and Corrigible Governance Under Uncertainty

Governance depends on representations that shape what institutions recognize as worthy of attention, protection, and correction. These can conceal deprivation while satisfying institutional measures of success. This paper develops viable freedom as effectively accessible, dynamically sustainable possibilities for exercising and developing life capacities, constrained by universal standing, rights, non-domination, ecological conditions, and others’ viable freedom. Viable Choice-Space Inquiry is the participatory practice of discerning life requirements, investigating explanations, cultivating alternatives, testing joint viability, and correcting decisions and representations. It distinguishes nominal, feasible, and viable choice-spaces; individual opportunities from their compossible exercise; and factual truth from normative adequacy and practical wisdom. Discernment addresses chronic misrelevance: persistent institutional attention to established concerns while consequential life requirements remain excluded. Critical fallibilism and recursive reflection make explanations and relevance selection contestable. Proportionate inquiry, accountable allocation, and effective remedies address the burdens and power relations of correction. Daoist heuristics illuminate emergence and restrained intervention without replacing rights. A hypothetical housing example illustrates correction of an inadequate accessibility category. The contribution is a normative and methodological synthesis whose practical value remains subject to comparative testing.