Layered Question Map (LQM): Structuring Inquiry by Conditions of Possibility

Technology now saturates the cognitive environments in which human inquiry unfolds. This article proposes the Layered Question Map (LQM), a structural, meta‑philosophical account of how questions depend on conditions of possibility. Instead of classifying questions by topic, LQM models them as nodes in a directed acyclic graph ordered by dependency depth—from existential presuppositions to everyday queries. We argue that AI‑mediated cognition is actively reshaping core humanistic concepts—consciousness, cognition, knowledge, society, intersubjectivity, and truth—by altering how questions are generated, framed, and resolved. We formally define LQM, present a six‑layer implementation, and show how self‑referential inquiry can be handled via annotated recursive nodes without violating acyclicity. We then sketch applications to education, dialogue design, and AI ethics, where LQM helps prevent category mistakes (e.g., treating meaning‑laden questions as empirical forecasts) by making dependencies explicit. We contend that, in an AI‑saturated humanities, making the structure of questioning visible is newly urgent: it enables interdisciplinary critique that is at once conceptually rigorous and operationalizable. LQM is offered not as a content taxonomy but as a structural orientation tool for asking well‑placed questions.