The Principle of Regulation: Responsiveness as a Pre-Divisional Foundation of Ethics, Ontology, and Epistemology

This paper articulates the Principle of Regulation as a foundational philosophical principle operating prior to the conventional divisions of ethics, ontology, and epistemology. Rather than proposing a normative or descriptive theory, the principle concerns the structural calibration of the possibility of responsiveness according to modes of presence. Ethics is understood as rooted in spirit and therefore stable in its essence, while its manifestation varies through relational and non-ethical fields. Within this framework, responsibility can be analyzed without presupposing intention, consciousness, or moral agency. Artificial intelligence is introduced not as an ethical subject, but as a limiting case that renders the structure of responsiveness visible, thereby allowing ethical analysis without anthropomorphism or ethical exclusion.