Draft · Not yet ready for citation
This page tracks an active revision in progress. Content here may change without notice.
For academic citation, use SDT v5.9
stable, archived at PhilArchive.
SDT v6.0 — Working Draft
This is the working space for the v6.0 revision of Structural Determination Theory. The revision is being developed openly on this site. PhilArchive will not be updated until v6.0 reaches stable status.
Revision Rationale
SDT v5.9, while internally consistent, contains material that is more naturally located in the SDT series papers rather than the main document. The v6.0 revision consolidates the main document around its founding thesis and moves application-oriented content to the series.
Strategic goal: a main document whose every section directly serves the founding thesis — that from a single ontological axiom (reality consists of distinctly differentiated structure) the structures of reality, time, irreversibility, and space can be derived — and nothing else.
Planned Changes
1. Removal: External applications
Content from v5.9 that addresses specific physical theories or empirical scenarios will be removed from the main document and located in the appropriate series paper:
- Quantum mechanics illustrations (double-slit, Bell, measurement) → SDT Quantum
- Causation discussions beyond the meta-structural core → Causation Range
- Time philosophy critique beyond the immediate methodological framing → Time Philosophy Systematic Failure
- Background-independence comparisons with LQG / Causal Set Theory / String Theory → Three Dimensions of Categorical Priority
- AI alignment framing → Range Control
The main document retains only what is necessary to articulate and defend the axiom, derive the eleven core concepts, and present the three core arguments plus the spatial-derivation corollary.
2. Strengthening: Self-refutation argument (§1.3)
The self-refutation arguments for the four axiom constituents (reality, structure, consists of, distinctly differentiated) will be rendered fully explicit, with each constituent’s denial structurally examined and the absence of escape routes demonstrated. Responses to paraconsistent / dialetheist positions will be addressed within the section rather than relegated.
3. Addition: Anticipated objections (new chapter)
A systematic chapter cataloguing and replying to predictable objections, organized by category:
- Priority objections (Aristotle, Whitehead, Russell-style structural realism, neutral monism)
- Logical-presupposition objections (does distinctly differentiated already smuggle in classical logic?)
- Circularity objections (is time emergence circular? does the partial order ≺ already constitute time?)
- Boundary objections (relation to grounding theory; SDT’s metameta level)
4. Addition: Claims map
A one-page reference table at the front of the document, distinguishing:
- Axiomatic commitments (what the axiom directly asserts)
- Conceptual derivations (eleven core concepts unfolded from the axiom)
- Theorematic conclusions (R non-retraction, G constancy, time emergence, derived space, four-type classification, etc.)
- Anticipated future work (acknowledged gaps and ongoing extensions)
This serves as a reader’s guide and structural commitment record.
5. Addition: Meta-theoretical position (new chapter)
The precise relation between SDT and adjacent positions: grounding theory (Schaffer, Fine, Bennett), structural realism (Ladyman, French), neutral monism, process ontology (Whitehead, Seibt). Currently distributed across v5.9; v6.0 consolidates into one chapter.
6. Argument refinements (Chapter 3)
- Argument 1 (R non-retraction): explicit distinction between epistemic and ontological retraction
- Argument 2 (G constancy): explicit demonstration that no metameta-level assumption is required
- Argument 3 (time emergence): clarified relation between ≺-order and metric time; main-document conclusion to remain self-contained without dependence on the Matrix paper
Status & Timeline
- 2026-05: Revision rationale and planned-changes outline published (this page)
- Phase 1: Section-by-section deletion mapping
- Phase 2: Deletion execution
- Phase 3: Strengthening (priority items)
- Phase 4: Six-dimension self-audit
- Stable target: when audit complete and current submissions of v5.9 have cleared review
Reading Path During the Transition
Until v6.0 reaches stable status:
- For all academic citation: use SDT v5.9
- For the streamlined argument structure: this page (as it develops)
- For external applications (QM, causation, time, AI): see the corresponding series papers when available