A Dependency Hypothesis is a proposed claim that one form of organisation establishes conditions required for another form of organisation.
Within APS, pathway arrows do not function as self-validating diagrams. Each arrow represents a dependency hypothesis that must be supported through organisational argument and evaluated against relevant evidence.
Dependency hypotheses may be strengthened, weakened, revised, or rejected. Their credibility depends upon the quality of the organisational explanation they provide and the degree to which they are supported by converging lines of evidence, including organisational analysis, explanatory necessity, developmental support, evolutionary support, comparative evidence, and comparison with rival architectures.
A dependency hypothesis therefore functions as a scientific proposal concerning organisational conditions of possibility rather than a fixed doctrinal claim.