Dependent Origination Computational Cosmology (TOEI): A Meta-Ontological Framework

TOEI (Dependent Origination Computational Cosmology) is a meta-ontological framework that proposes being is constituted not by substance but by the unfolding of relation, through the structure T→ε→O→I. T is the field of primordial possibility; ε is the principle making distinction possible; O is the self-unfolding of relation; and I is being as a stable relational structure. Time and causation obtain only within O. I has no svabhāva (inherent existence). Phenomenal character is numerically identical with a representational structure in a tag configuration. Version 6.1 corrects a defect in an earlier version that identified the position within a network of distinctions with the tag, which allowed a derivation that would imply panpsychism. The two networks are now explicitly distinguished, and the identity claim itself is unchanged.

Study at a glance

Abstract

TOEI (Dependent Origination Computational Cosmology) is a meta-ontological framework that asks not what being is but how being is possible. It proposes that being is constituted not by substance but by the unfolding of relation, through the structure T→ε→O→I: T is the field of primordial possibility, which obtains rather than exists; ε is the principle constitutive of T's obtaining, making distinction and difference possible; O is the self-unfolding of relation; and I is being constituted as a stable relational structure. The three arrows are not homogeneous but denote three distinct relations — elucidation (→₁), realization (→₂), and constitution (→₃). Time and causation obtain only within O. I has no svabhāva. Phenomenal character is numerically identical with a representational structure standing in a tag configuration. Version 6.1 corrects a defect in §9.5 of Chapter 9. Version 6.0 identified the position a representational structure occupies within a network of distinctions with the tag of §9.2, calling them "another name" for the same thing. But the two networks have different relata: the network of distinctions is a relation among representational structures, specifying what content a structure has; the tag is a relation of access — global broadcast and integration — between a representational structure and other processing structures, specifying whether that content is present as phenomenal character. That the two vary independently shows they are distinct. Left standing, the identification allowed "position within the network of distinctions = phenomenal character" to be derived from §9.5 alone, nullifying the block against panpsychism established in §9.4. The seam has been replaced by an explicit distinction between the two networks, and a self-limitation added: the arguments of §9.5 (the white world, illusion, dreaming) operate only on the side of representational structure and do not establish the tag condition. The identity claim itself is unchanged. Available in Korean and English. Keywords: meta-ontology, dependent origination, relational ontology, svabhāva, phenomenal character, consciousness, global workspace, representationalism.