Nonmetaclaims

Nonmetaclaims refer to statements whose content is about the world or about our experiences, rather than about the status, justification, or evidence for other claims. In other words, they are ordinary, object-level assertions that describe facts, properties, events, or norms without making any claim about how true or well-supported those claims are.

Examples of nonmetaclaims include factual or empirical statements such as "Water boils at 100°C at one atmosphere," "The meeting starts at 9 a.m.," or "The novel explores themes of resilience." Normative nonmetaclaims can also occur, such as "People should be treated with fairness," when stated as a claim about how things ought to be, rather than a claim about the justification for believing something. What counts as a metaclaim, by contrast, is a statement about the status or support of another claim—for instance, "This evidence supports my previous claim" or "It is true that X is the case," which reflect on justification, truth, or reliability rather than on the content of the world itself.

The distinction between nonmetaclaims and metaclaims is used in epistemology and philosophy of language to separate object-level discourse from meta-level discourse. The boundary can be blurry in practice, as speakers sometimes embed meta-level considerations within ordinary statements. Nonetheless, recognizing the difference helps clarify debates about justification, evidence, and the evaluation of arguments.