1.1 Before Theory Begins
Prior to explicit philosophical reflection, there is already a working ontology embedded in everyday and scientific practice.
It is not usually stated.
It does not appear as a doctrine.
It is enacted in how things are spoken of, stabilised, and distinguished.
In this implicit structure:
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the world consists of things
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things have properties
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things enter into relations
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relations occur within a shared space and time
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descriptions refer to a world that exists independently of being described
This is not a theory of reality.
It is the default grammar of intelligibility.
1.2 Objects and Their Persistence
The most basic unit in this implicit ontology is the object.
Objects are assumed to:
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persist through change
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remain numerically identical across time
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possess properties that may vary without affecting identity
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be separable from the descriptions used to refer to them
Whether the object is:
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a stone
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a planet
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a cell
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a particle
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a person
the structure is the same:
an enduring unit with variable properties located in a shared world.
This assumption is rarely articulated because it functions as a background condition for articulation itself.
1.3 Properties as Attributable Features
Objects are understood to carry properties.
Properties are:
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attributes of objects
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distinguishable from the objects that instantiate them
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capable of change without dissolution of the object
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describable independently of any particular act of description
For example:
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mass
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colour
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charge
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temperature
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location
These are treated as:
features that belong to things rather than features that arise through relational articulation.
1.4 Relations as External Connections
Relations are understood as:
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links between already constituted entities
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additional structure imposed upon pre-existing objects
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dependent on relata that are themselves independent
Thus:
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objects exist first
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relations connect them second
Even when relations are complex (causal, spatial, temporal, logical), they are still treated as:
external bindings between independent units.
1.5 Space and Time as Containing Structure
Objects and relations are assumed to exist within a background framework:
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space as universal extension
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time as universal sequence
This framework is:
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independent of the objects within it
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uniform across all events
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the same regardless of what occurs within it
Space and time function as:
neutral containers in which things are situated and through which they interact.
1.6 Description and World as Distinct
A further distinction is silently operative:
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the world is what exists
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description is how it is represented
This introduces a separation between:
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ontology (what is)
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epistemology (how it is known or described)
Crucially:
the world is assumed to be what it is regardless of how it is described.
Descriptions may vary, but:
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they are taken to aim at a fixed underlying reality
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success is measured by correspondence to that reality
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error is deviation from it
1.7 Scientific Extension of the Same Grammar
Scientific practice does not replace this structure; it refines it.
In its standard interpretive form, science assumes:
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entities (particles, fields, organisms)
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stable properties (mass, charge, state variables)
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governing laws (mathematical regularities)
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causal relations (interaction, force, influence)
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spacetime embedding (coordinates, trajectories)
Even when abstract and mathematical, the same grammar persists:
a structured world of independent entities governed by invariant laws.
1.8 Stability of the Picture
What makes this ontology compelling is its stability across contexts:
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it supports prediction
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it supports control
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it supports explanation
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it supports shared reference
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it supports technological manipulation
Because of this, it does not present itself as a hypothesis.
It presents itself as:
simply how things are.
1.9 What Has Been Installed (Without Claiming It Is True)
At this stage, nothing has been questioned.
But a complete implicit structure has been laid out:
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objects
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properties
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relations
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space
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time
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representation
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laws
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causation
All organised under a single assumption:
reality is independent of its articulation.
This assumption is not yet evaluated.
It is simply the operative background of intelligibility.
Transition
Once this structure is in place, a natural pressure emerges:
If this is how reality is assumed to be, then:
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why does this assumption feel necessary?
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what licenses the move from success of description to independence of reality?
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and what exactly is being claimed when we say “the world is independent”?
That pressure is not yet resolved here.
It accumulates.
It becomes explicit in:
Chapter 2 — The No Miracles Temptation
where the inferential step from practice to metaphysics is finally exposed as a move rather than a necessity.
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