Recursive Coherence: Foundations for an Adaptive Philosophy of Science, Mind, and Society

This paper presents a unified philosophical framework in which metaphysics, epistemology, and critical theory are integrated under a single coherence-first law of persistence. Four interdependent constructs form the system’s architecture. Dynamic materialism, defining matter as adaptive process rather than inert substance. Adaptive realism, identifying the real as that which persists across recursive coherence arbitration. Synthetic epistemology, structuring knowledge as a self-correcting process of coherence tracking. And, symbolic lock-in, the failure mode in which symbolic systems stabilize into high-entropy attractors disconnected from the adaptive substrate. This framework operates recursively. The material substrate sets the scope of reality, reality constrains epistemic mapping, epistemology governs symbolic evolution, and symbolic lock-in is prevented by epistemic design. This closed, self-auditing structure addresses the fragmentation of traditional philosophy, offering a formally grounded account of persistence that is both ontologically flexible and resistant to conceptual stagnation. Applications extend across science, governance, artificial intelligence, and cultural critique, where adaptive viability depends on maintaining structural coherence across physical, cognitive, and symbolic layers. The result is a general philosophy capable of integrating descriptive, normative, and diagnostic functions without redundancy, anchored in a universal principle of coherence-driven persistence.