Appearance from Existence: A Minimal Axiomatic Ontology

This paper derives the structure of appearance from a single axiom: Existence is. From this axiom it follows that Existence cannot be differentiated, bounded, or negated, and therefore cannot exclude any appearance. Apparent differentiation, termed Form, cannot constitute a real modification of Existence and must instead arise as a mode of seeming, namely the appearance of an impossible differentiation without its realization. Because Form must stabilize itself in order to appear, yet cannot fully stabilize without contradicting the nature of Existence, it exists as a simultaneous instability and self-stabilization, termed tension. Time, space, causality, complexity, and experience are argued to be derivative appearances arising from this fundamental tensional structure.