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Book I: Relational Existence
Fourteen chapters carry the reconstruction from an undifferentiated origin to space and time, and state the test that would break each step.
An academic series on the ontology of existence
Emergent Existence
What is the least we can assume, and what can be logically derived from there, that might explain how a minimal origin condition could give rise to a reality rich enough for conscious agents to collectively question both the manner and the meaning of their own existence?
One rule
A stage may not use a property that no earlier stage has earned.
The series asks how much of observable structure can be reconstructed from minimal logical-relational primitives. Two working axioms, difference and admissible transformation, are carried as far as they will go, and every further assumption is recorded where it enters, with the test that would settle it.
Three volumes, four books
Volume I
Natural Existence
Beta draft, prepared for peer review
OriginDifferenceDistinctionBoundaryRelationClosureOrientationReturnFormalismScaleDistanceGeometrySpaceTime
Book II: Physical Existence
In drafting
SpacetimeGravityQuantum GravityMatterBlack HolesRecursive CosmogenesisComplexityLifeMemoryKnowing
Volume II
Conscious Existence
Planned
RegulationValuationLearningSelf-modelingCommunicationConsciousness
Volume III
Meaningful Existence
Planned
InterpretationShared referenceNorms and institutionsMeaning
Latest paper
Forthcoming: a paper on Time
A first paper, drawn from Book I's chapter on Time, is in preparation for PhilSci-Archive.
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An occasional letter when a book, a paper or a new stage of the Expedition is ready. Nothing else.
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