Constraint and Explanation in a Minimal Ontology: From Solipsism to Conatus
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper develops a minimal ontology that reconstructs structural realism without presupposing an external world. Starting from the condition that operation occurs, it derives the necessity of constraint and introduces its minimal realization as a constraint structure C = (X, R). Epistemic locality follows, restricting each operational trajectory to partial access to this structure. Under this condition, explanation is necessarily a process of constraint reconstruction, and explanatory adequacy is introduced as an ordering over constraint-preserving reconstructions. Such reconstruction cannot be completed within a single operational trajectory and is stabilized through collective comparison and the minimization of collective structural error. From this structure, conatus is derived as a necessary dynamical condition for persistence under constraint, formalized as (A,I,W,η). Action and morality are then reconstructed as structural dynamics over this coordinate system rather than as products of external norms. This framework unifies ontology, explanation, and action within a single constraint-based system, and recasts identity, quantum interpretation, and incompleteness as consequences of epistemic locality. [Notice] A Korean translation of this paper is available at:10.5281/zenodo.19952814
Author: Kim, Kyunghoe
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7159654539
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: