Protocols of Universalisation: Ontological Rigidity, Symbolic Closure, and Matter as a Revisionary Instance
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: A philosophical critique of rigid universalism in classical Greek thought identifies the mechanism of ontological rigidification by which empirical regularities are elevated to essential necessities. The Platonic and Aristotelian modalities of this conversion are distinguished, together with their effects on the status of the contingent and on the authority of intelligibility frameworks. The universal functions as an operational protocol of comparison and stabilisation, whose costs become invisible when the conditions of inscription are erased. A materialist ontology of revisability supplies criteria for identifying and correcting the essentialising move, wherein emergence functions as active ontogenesis and immanence prevents the conversion of the protocol into essence.
Author: Cota, David
Institution: Universidade dos Açores
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7130838673
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