Why AA Is Not Reality but the Condition of Reality

(An Instancological Clarification)

1. What We Normally Mean by “Reality”

In ordinary philosophical and scientific usage, reality refers to:

what exists

what can be described

what can be structured

what can be distinguished

what can be talked about, even negatively

Even when philosophers stretch the term—“ultimate reality,” “absolute reality,” “noumenal reality”—the word reality still implies:

something that is already inside the field of existence and intelligibility.

In Instancology, all such “realities” belong to the Macro World and fall within the 2×2 structure:

RA (Relatively Absolute): laws, logic, mathematics

AR (Absolute Relative): nature, life, physical existence

RR (Relative Relative): language, culture, artifacts

All of these are instances.

2. Why AA Cannot Be “Reality”

AA (Absolute Absolute) cannot be called reality for one decisive reason:

Reality is already an instance. AA is not.

To call something “reality” already presupposes:

differentiation

existence

structure

instancing

intelligibility

But AA is prior to all of these.

AA is:

not an object

not a law

not a field

not a background thing

not existence

not non-existence

Calling AA “reality” would immediately collapse it into RA or AR, turning it into something.

That would destroy its role.

3. The Core Distinction: Inside vs Condition

Instancology draws a strict line:

Category

Status

Reality

What appears, exists, functions

AA

What makes appearance possible

AA is not inside reality.

AA is what allows reality to occur at all.

This mirrors—but also completes—what earlier philosophy only approached.

Immanuel Kant distinguished phenomena from conditions of possibility, but still kept them inside cognition.

Martin Heidegger spoke of the “clearing” (Lichtung), yet still tied it to Being.

Instancology removes the final residue:

AA is not Being, not Beingness, not clearing, not horizon.

It is the condition of all of them.

4. Why Conditions Cannot Be Members

A condition cannot belong to what it conditions.

Examples:

The rules of chess are not a chess move.

The canvas is not part of the painting.

Electricity is not a TV program.

The compiler is not the software it compiles.

Likewise:

AA cannot be one reality among others.

If it were, it would need:

a structure

a relation

a mode of existence

But all structure and relation already presuppose AA.

5. Instancology’s Key Insight

Instancology’s decisive move is this:

Reality = instancing

AA = the condition for instancing

Reality is what comes out. AA is what makes coming-out possible.

This is why:

Reality can change.

Laws can differ.

Universes could have been otherwise.

Contingency is real.

But AA does not change, not because it is rigid, but because:

change itself belongs to reality, not to the condition of reality.

6. Why Beginners Struggle with This

Most metaphysical systems assume:

If it matters, it must exist.

Instancology says the opposite:

What matters most does not exist.

This is why AA feels:

“too abstract”

“empty”

“meaningless”

“vague”

But this discomfort is not a weakness—it is a signal:

You are standing at the boundary where explanation must stop.

7. Final Formulation (Precise)

AA is not reality because reality is already an instance.

AA is the condition under which any instance—any reality—can occur.

To mistake AA for reality is to:

reify it

objectify it

domesticate it

lose it

Instancology refuses that move.

That refusal is the breakthrough.