The Intended Meaning
Separation is the child reaching about two years of age and is understood here as the transition into the sphere of consciousness, memory, and discernment
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: definitional
- Argument movement: it defines separation as a threshold that moves the child into consciousness and discernment.
- Central terms: separation, consciousness, memory, discernment.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It establishes that the term is not understood only as a biological time period, but as a marker of a cognitive and moral transition in the child, which later prepares for understanding the relationship between age, responsibility, and adoption.
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Support
- Supporting text: «Separation: the child reaching about two years of age, and is understood here as a transition into the sphere of consciousness, memory, and discernment».
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom relies on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted verbatim.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is expository; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Editorial note
A direct expository formulation with limited analytical expansion.