Why reality does not need to be gathered to be real
Having clarified the role of systems as frameworks of possibility, ontology can now turn to the positive articulation of reality itself. What does it mean for something to be fully present if totality is denied?
This post argues that reality is fully present locally, without requiring global assembly. Presence does not depend on completion; it is perspectival, instantiated, and relational.
1. Local Presence
Every phenomenon occurs somewhere, somehow, and from some perspective. In that occurrence, reality is complete: what happens, appears, or is instantiated is fully real in its context.
No perspective can contain all phenomena simultaneously. Yet the limitation of perspective does not diminish presence. Actuality is local but fully realised wherever it occurs.
2. Presence vs Totality
Totality requires that all instantiations be gathered into a single, complete picture. Presence only requires that instantiations occur.
To demand totality is to confuse the mode of appearance with the thing appearing. Presence is independent of any totalising viewpoint.
3. The Role of Perspective
Perspective is not a limitation; it is a condition of actuality. Each instantiation is perspectival:
It occupies a relational niche in a system of possibilities.
It is accessible only through a cut, a point of actualisation.
It retains integrity without requiring completeness.
Thus, presence without totality is neither partial nor deficient. It is perspectival and complete within its context.
4. Preserving Novelty
Local presence preserves the possibility of novelty. New instantiations do not violate the integrity of what is already present; they simply add further actualisations within the relational system.
If totality were imposed, novelty would be impossible — every instance would already have to be included. Presence without totality ensures that actuality remains generative.
5. Coherence Without Aggregation
Reality can be coherent without being aggregated. Coherence depends on relational constraints, not on global assembly. Systems define the structures of possible instances, and instantiations respect those structures.
Local actualisations are thus both complete and coherent, even though the totality of all actuality remains forever open.
6. The Fifth Discipline
With this insight, a fifth discipline emerges:
Ontology must recognise that presence does not require totality; actuality is local, perspectival, and fully real in context.
This discipline allows ontology to be positive and generative, offering a full account of reality without returning to the fantasy of completion.
7. Preparing for Synthesis
Having refused totality, dismantled maximalism, corrected inventory-thinking, and articulated local presence, the series is ready to draw together its lessons. The final post will synthesise these principles into a coherent vision of ontology after totality, where discipline, perspective, and relational systems converge.
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