Large language models exhibit intelligence without genuine epistemic understanding, exposing a key gap: the absence of epistemic architecture. This paper introduces the Structured Cognitive Loop (SCL) as an executable epistemological framework for emergent intelligence. Unlike traditional AI research asking "what is intelligence?" (ontological), SCL asks "under what conditions does cognition emerge?" (epistemological). Grounded in philosophy of mind and cognitive phenomenology, SCL bridges conceptual philosophy and implementable cognition. Drawing on process philosophy, enactive cognition, and extended mind theory, we define intelligence not as a property but as a performed process -- a continuous loop of judgment, memory, control, action, and regulation. SCL makes three contributions. First, it operationalizes philosophical insights into computationally interpretable structures, enabling "executable epistemology" -- philosophy as structural experiment. Second, it shows that functional separation within cognitive architecture yields more coherent and interpretable behavior than monolithic prompt based systems, supported by agent evaluations. Third, it redefines intelligence: not representational accuracy but the capacity to reconstruct its own epistemic state through intentional understanding. This framework impacts philosophy of mind, epistemology, and AI. For philosophy, it allows theories of cognition to be enacted and tested. For AI, it grounds behavior in epistemic structure rather than statistical regularity. For epistemology, it frames knowledge not as truth possession but as continuous reconstruction within a phenomenologically coherent loop. We situate SCL within debates on cognitive phenomenology, emergence, normativity, and intentionality, arguing that real progress requires not larger models but architectures that realize cognitive principles structurally.

翻译：大型语言模型展现出智能却缺乏真正的认识论理解，揭示了一个关键缺口：认识论架构的缺失。本文提出结构化认知循环（SCL）作为涌现智能的可执行认识论框架。与传统人工智能研究追问“智能是什么？”（本体论）不同，SCL追问“在何种条件下认知得以涌现？”（认识论）。SCL植根于心灵哲学与认知现象学，桥接概念哲学与可实现的认知。借鉴过程哲学、生成认知与延展心灵理论，我们将智能定义为一种执行过程而非固有属性——一个由判断、记忆、控制、行动与调节构成的持续循环。SCL做出三项贡献。首先，它将哲学洞见操作化为可计算解释的结构，实现“可执行认识论”——即作为结构实验的哲学。其次，通过智能体评估验证，它表明认知架构内的功能分离比基于单一提示的集成系统产生更连贯且可解释的行为。第三，它重新定义智能：智能并非表征准确性，而是通过意向性理解重构自身认识状态的能力。该框架对心灵哲学、认识论与人工智能领域均产生影响。对哲学而言，它使得认知理论得以具身化与检验；对人工智能而言，它将行为奠基于认识结构而非统计规律性；对认识论而言，它将知识框架为在现象学连贯循环中的持续重构，而非对真理的占有。我们将SCL置于认知现象学、涌现性、规范性与意向性等论辩中，主张真正的进步不在于更大的模型，而在于从结构上实现认知原则的架构。