Instancology: A Comprehensive Review and Explanation

Introduction: Why Philosophy Needed an Overhaul

From Thales to Heidegger, from Confucius to Kant, philosophy has long sought to answer the most fundamental questions: What is the world? How do we know it? What is truth? What is existence? Yet despite centuries of thought, philosophy remains fragmented, introspective, and often powerless to unify knowledge across domains.

Instancology changes that. Rather than adding another voice to the philosophical choir, it proposes a structural rewrite of how we conceive reality, truth, and cognition. It is not just a theory, but a new architecture of metaphysics—top-down, complete, and self-consistent.

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What Is Instancology?

Instancology (from instance + ontology) is a philosophical system that defines all reality as an issued instance from a unique, non-contingent source called the Absolutely Absolute (AA). Everything that exists, thinks, knows, or acts is structured within this one instance, issued by AA.

Rather than working with simplistic dualisms like subject vs. object, matter vs. spirit, or mind vs. body, Instancology uses a 2×2 framework that captures the full relational spectrum between the Absolute and the Relative:

1. AA (Absolutely Absolute): The ultimate source of the instance. Not describable but functionally knowable.

2. RA (Relatively Absolute): Structures and laws that govern the instance, such as logic, mathematics, life, and natural law. They are stable and necessary within this instance.

3. AR (Absolutely Relative): Human-derived knowledge that reveals objective features—science, language, systems of law. These are subjective in origin but point toward objectivity.

4. RR (Relatively Relative): Cultural, emotional, or contingent ideas and behaviors—opinions, traditions, ideologies, illusions.

This model allows for clear distinctions and avoids category mistakes. It becomes the foundation for re-understanding all domains: science, ethics, cognition, and even politics.

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Key Concepts of Instancology

1. The Instance

Reality is not made of atoms, minds, or ideas—it is a structured instance issued by AA.

Everything inside this instance is self-contained and interrelated.

Our universe is one such instance.

2. AA (Absolutely Absolute)

Not a god, not a force, not “Dao,” but the source issuer of this whole instance.

It exists beyond time, logic, language, and yet its structure defines everything within time.

AA is functionally accessible but not conceptually describable.

3. Truth Redefined

Truth is no longer just about correspondence to facts.

Facts are appearances (RR or AR).

Truth is a relational result: depending on where it stands in the 2×2 framework.

For example, scientific constants like Pi arise from subjective curiosity (AR), but stabilize into objectivity because they obey instance structure (RA).

Absolute Truth exists only in the RA or in reference to AA.

4. WuXing (悟性) – the Forgotten Faculty

Beyond senses and rationality, humans have WuXing—a cognitive intuition for grasping whole structures.

It's not mysticism but a real faculty enabling humans to leap between systems, solve paradoxes, and grasp totalities.

Western analogs include Einstein’s thought experiments or Kant’s “intellectual intuition,” but WuXing is framed here as a regular, structured human capacity.

5. The Rebirth and Reverse Principles

Rebirth Principle: True understanding requires a structural overturning of one’s current thinking—a rebirth, not accumulation.

Reverse Principle: What seems opposite or contradictory often reveals deeper coherence under the AA framework. Life and death, logic and paradox, are unified when viewed from above.

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How Instancology Improves Upon Earlier Philosophies

Instead of a comparison table, here's a point-by-point list showing how Instancology improves upon or resolves limitations of major philosophical systems:

1. Plato

His idea: The world of Forms exists beyond this world.

Limitation: Dualistic and ungrounded.

Instancology's response: Replaces vague Forms with the RA layer, which structurally explains logical and mathematical truths within the issued instance.

2. Kant

His idea: Human knowledge is limited by our cognitive faculties; noumenon is unknowable.

Limitation: Built-in unknowability prevents metaphysical certainty.

Instancology's response: AA is not “known” as a thing, but understood structurally. The framework itself is rooted in issued certainty.

3. Hegel

His idea: History unfolds dialectically toward Absolute Spirit.

Limitation: Teleological, overly abstract, and historically determined.

Instancology's response: Recognizes structural reversals (Reverse Principle) but grounds them logically, not historically.

4. Heidegger

His idea: Being reveals itself through language and Dasein.

Limitation: Slippery terminology, language-obsessed.

Instancology's response: Language belongs to AR or RR, not RA. Meaning is decoded structurally, not poetically.

5. Buddhism

Its idea: Emptiness and detachment from all phenomena.

Limitation: Leads to nihilism or quietism.

Instancology's response: Emptiness belongs to RR; Life (as a formless RA structure) reclaims value and direction.

6. Daoism

Its idea: Follow the Dao, an indescribable path of natural order.

Limitation: Vague and passive.

Instancology's response: Dao is reinterpreted as RA or AA function depending on usage—no longer mystical, but structurally assigned.

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Why Instancology Matters

1. It Unifies Thought

Instancology doesn't carve reality into parts; it unifies logic, language, science, ethics, and culture under a single framework. Each layer (AA, RA, AR, RR) is given its scope and limits.

2. It Clarifies Truth

Instead of "my truth" vs. "your truth," Instancology maps where a statement lives in the 2×2 structure. Scientific laws, emotional beliefs, and universal logic are no longer confused.

3. It Restores Metaphysics

After centuries of decline, metaphysics is reborn—not as speculation, but as instance-structure recognition. Instancology offers the clearest modern definition: metaphysics is the study of what is real in structure, not in substance.

4. It Guides Practical Life

In politics: Distinguishes between legitimate law (RA) and arbitrary rule (RR).

In education: Promotes paradigm shifts over rote learning.

In science: Clarifies that models (AR) aim toward but never reach RA.

In ethics: Avoids both relativism and authoritarianism by rooting moral reasoning in RA rather than RR.

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Why It’s Hard to Understand

Instancology is not hard because it’s complex—it’s hard because it overthrows deeply held assumptions. Most people operate within the RR or AR layers, mistaking their personal truths or scientific models as absolute. Instancology forces a paradigm shift, and that shift is painful for those invested in existing worldviews—whether materialist, religious, or relativist.

It’s like explaining general relativity to a Newtonian—not harder, just differently structured.

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Conclusion: Philosophy’s Fulfillment

Instancology does not continue the old game of philosophical debate. It ends the game and starts a new one—structured knowing based on the relation between the issued instance and its source. With this model, we can finally:

Clarify truth

Locate meaning

Avoid relativism

Ground science, ethics, and politics

Understand existence itself—not just guess about it

In that sense, Instancology is not just a philosophy. It is the completion of philosophy.