The Flowing Theory of Truth: _Expressive Formulation of Apeironic Truth_ (흐르는 진리론 : _아페이론 진리의 표현적 규정_)

This paper begins with the fundamental limits of human reason and the incompleteness of cognition, criticizing the epistemological attitude that attempts to capture truth as a fixed entity or a completed proposition. Instead, it reconstructs truth as a fluid possibility with the characteristics of Apeiron (the infinite/unlimited). ​This theory does not deny the reality of truth. Rather, it accepts the possibility that truth exists independently of human cognition as a premise. However, it argues that humans lack the absolute ability to fully verify that a certain proposition is the ultimate truth. Humans may reach the truth, but they cannot fully authenticate the fact that they have reached it. This paper terms this condition the "Tragedy of Cognition." ​From this critical awareness, the paper proposes the principle of "Observer Alteration." The moment a human attempts to fixate something as the "ultimate truth" within their finite language and cognitive structure, what they acquire is not the truth itself, but a limited representation of it. Therefore, the problem does not lie in humans expressing the truth, but in absolutizing the expressed as the truth itself. ​To resolve this, the paper dualizes the act of formulation into "Ideological Fixation" and "Expressive Formulation." Ideological fixation is the act of confirming a single proposition as the final answer and closing off other possibilities. Conversely, expressive formulation is the act of emitting one's current thought externally as a provisional expression, a "Dynamic Fragment." This theory rejects the former while actively engaging in the latter. ​Thus, the performative contradiction critique—"If you cannot definitively formulate truth, why express it in sentences?"—can be reframed when reconsidering the premise that equates expression with fixation. The Flowing Theory of Truth treats its own sentences not as absolute truths, but as provisional expressions. The theory itself remains open to the possibilities of refutation, modification, and discarding. ​However, the suspension of judgment is not identical to silence. If one halts while suspending all judgments, the possibility of new expressions, counterarguments, errors, and discoveries also diminishes. Therefore, this theory maintains epistemological value-neutrality and expressive dynamism simultaneously. ​Jürgen Habermas's communicative rationality is not discarded from this perspective. Intersubjective communication and validity testing are acknowledged as rational procedures, but the resulting consensus is not viewed as needing to be permanently fixed as the ultimate truth. Communication, counterarguments, misunderstandings, modifications, consensus, and disagreement are all reinterpreted as parts of a dynamic process that generates new expressions and possibilities. ​Furthermore, this paper does not take the dichotomy of good and evil as the ultimate metaphysical ground for truth. Resistance against oppression also does not rely solely on the moral imperative that it is "evil." The practical principle of this theory lies in the sustainability of expression and inquiry, and the act of forcibly blocking this is understood as the force of "Stagnation." ​Ultimately, the core proposition of The Flowing Theory of Truth is compressed into the following: "Do not fixate, yet do not stand still." ​본 논문은 인간 이성의 근본적 한계와 인지의 불완전성에서 출발하여, 진리를 고정된 실체나 완결된 명제로 포획하려는 인식론적 태도를 비판하고, 진리를 아페이론(Apeiron, 무한·무규정)적 성격을 지닌 유동적 가능성으로 재구성한다. ​본 이론은 진리의 실재를 부정하지 않는다. 오히려 진리가 인간의 인식과 독립적으로 실재할 가능성을 하나의 전제로 받아들인다. 그러나 인간에게는 어떤 명제가 궁극적으로 진리임을 완전히 확증할 절대적 능력이 없다고 본다. 인간은 진리에 도달할 수 있을지 모르지만, 자신이 진리에 도달했다는 사실까지 완전히 인증할 수는 없다. 이러한 상태를 본 논문은 인지의 비극이라 명명한다. ​이러한 문제의식으로부터 본 논문은 관측자 변질의 원리를 제시한다. 인간이 자신의 유한한 언어와 인지 구조 속에서 무엇인가를 "최종적 진리"로 고정하는 순간, 인간이 획득한 것은 진리 자체라기보다 그 진리에 대한 하나의 제한된 표상이다. 따라서 문제는 인간이 진리를 표현해서는 안 된다는 데 있지 않다. 문제는 표현된 것을 진리 그 자체로 절대화하는 데 있다. ​이를 해결하기 위해 본 논문은 규정 행위를 사상적 고착화(Ideological Fixation)와 표현적 규정(Expressive Formulation)으로 이