Can Difference Emerge from Undifferentiated Presence: Primordial Presence, Presentability, and the Problem of First Difference
Trent Trinder
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 18, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22831413 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that absolutely undifferentiated primordial Presence cannot by itself account for determinate difference, and that a one-ground account must therefore attribute to Presence an intrinsic conditionability the author calls "Presentability"—a minimal capacity for relational articulation and manifestation, not a second substance or reflective awareness. Offers a tentative, explicitly incomplete model of reversal and return to sketch how relational information, bare awareness, and reflective self-relation might arise. |
Abstract
This paper asks what a metaphysics of primordial Presence must be like if it is to account for determinate difference. The target is not an empty experience or a merely unarticulated thought, but a purportedly fundamental condition prior to distinction, recognition, temporal ordering, and reflective awareness. I argue that absolutely undifferentiated Presence cannot by itself explain how anything could become manifest as this rather than that. If determinate difference is real, then a one-ground account must attribute to primordial Presence an intrinsic conditionability: a capacity for relational articulation and manifestation. I call this Presentability. Presentability is not a second substance, a hidden plurality of objects, or already-reflective awareness. It is the minimal structural capacity without which a fundamental Presence remains unable to account for the world of distinctions it is meant to ground. I then offer a tentative model of reversal and return to show how relational information, bare awareness, and eventually reflective self-relation might arise. The model is explicitly incomplete. Its purpose is to identify the explanatory work still required, not to announce a finished genesis of consciousness.