Anticipatory Meaning and Coerced Existence: A Theory of Temporal Power and Situated Freedom

This paper introduces the concept of false ontologization, a mechanism through which socially constructed expectations acquire the appearance of natural and necessary truths. It argues that anticipatory meanings—social projections concerning who individuals should become—shape present self-understanding by operating through three processes: naturalization, universalization, and temporal closure. Through these mechanisms, contingent futures come to be experienced as ontological necessities rather than social possibilities. Drawing on existential philosophy and critical social theory, the paper develops a framework for understanding contemporary forms of coercion, identity formation, and freedom, defining freedom as the recognition of contingency within socially structured existence.