Toward an Observer-Equivariant Ontology: Monads, Actualization, and Relational Cosmology
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) March 19, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17929467 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the observer-equivariant framework supports a dual-aspect ontology in which phenomenology and physical structure are two projections of a common observer-domain, with objectivity understood as invariance under perspective changes. Proposes "monadic actualization" as an ontological interpretation of how admissible histories yield lived actuality, and contends that cosmological order is a retrospectively reconstructed, symmetry-constrained history rather than an event-chain in absolute time. |
Abstract
This paper develops a philosophical interpretation of the observer-equivariant (OE) framework as a dual-aspect ontology. It argues that phenomenology and physical structure can be understood as two projections from a common observer-domain, rather than as two independent substances or as one fully reducible to the other. On this view, objectivity is identified with what remains invariant under admissible changes of perspective, and physical law is read as the stable residue of such transformations. The paper introduces monadic actualization as an ontological interpretation of the passage from admissible histories to lived actuality. This is not presented as a new physical dynamics, but as a proposal for how the formal openness of the framework may be read without collapsing into many-worlds realism. The resulting picture is contrasted with both Boltzmann-brain scenarios and naive multiverse interpretations: a lived world is not treated as an arbitrary fluctuation, but as part of a globally extensible and symmetry-constrained history. A further aim is to reinterpret cosmology in more explicitly relational terms. The standard sequence “Big Bang, inflation, later structure” is not denied, but it is read as a retrospectively reconstructed and maximally coherent ordering rather than as an event-chain unfolding in an absolute temporal container. In this sense, the paper explores a relational reading of cosmological order within an observer-equivariant ontology. The article also situates the proposal with respect to physicalism, substance dualism, panpsychism, Russellian monism, relational quantum mechanics, QBism, Leibnizian monadology, and process thought. It closes by identifying open problems, especially the status of the observer-domain, the constraint problem for actualization, and the risk that ontological gains may otherwise amount only to relabelling. This version: 10.5281/zenodo.19096257All versions: 10.5281/zenodo.17929467