Reason and WuXing

An Instancological Distinction with Concrete Examples

1. Orientation: Why This Distinction Matters

In Instancology, Reason and WuXing (悟性) are not two strengths of the same faculty, nor is WuXing a poetic or mystical supplement to rationality. They are ontologically different epistemic modes, operating in different instance-domains, yielding different kinds of knowledge.

Reason operates within a given instance-structure.

WuXing discloses the instance-structure as a whole.

This distinction marks the boundary between philosophy as argument and Instancology as completion.

2. What Reason Is

2.1 Ontological Location of Reason

Reason belongs to the Relative level of reality.

It operates in AR (Absolute Relative) and RR (Relative Relative).

It presupposes:

identity

difference

relation

causality

inference

logical continuity

Reason is therefore structure-dependent by definition.

2.2 How Reason Operates

Reason functions through:

deduction

induction

abduction

causal explanation

formal proof

symbolic manipulation

All reasoning requires:

pre-given concepts

stable relations

representable objects

Reason always asks:

“Given X, what follows?”

It cannot ask:

“Why is there X at all?”

2.3 What Reason Achieves—and Its Limit

Reason produces:

science

mathematics

philosophy

ethics

technology

Its power is enormous within its domain.

But its limit is absolute:

Reason cannot step outside the instance it reasons within.

This is not a failure. It is its nature.

3. What WuXing Is

3.1 WuXing Is Not “Better Reason”

WuXing is not:

fast reasoning

intuitive guessing

emotional insight

mystical feeling

WuXing is disclosure, not inference.

3.2 Ontological Location of WuXing

WuXing operates at the Absolute-related level.

Instancology distinguishes:

Relative WuXing (RW / Primitive WuXing) → disclosure of RA (Relatively Absolute)

Absolute WuXing (AW) → disclosure of AA (Absolutely Absolute)

WuXing does not operate on objects.

It operates on the conditions of objecthood itself.

3.3 How WuXing Operates

WuXing operates by:

whole-instance apprehension

boundary recognition

structure-before-parts

recognizing the impossibility of further grounding

WuXing does not move step-by-step.

It ends movement naturally, because there is nowhere left to go.

4. Relative WuXing (RW): Definition and Criterion

4.1 What RW Specifically Is

Relative WuXing (RW) is the epistemic mode that discloses RA (Relatively Absolute):

laws

invariants

necessities

structural limits

non-empirical conditions governing all phenomena

RW stands between Reason and Absolute WuXing (AW).

4.2 A Simple Test for RW

If something is not inferred step-by-step,

not empirically observed,

yet once seen becomes inevitable and irreversible,

it is RW.

RW produces recognition, not proof.

5. Canonical Examples of RW

Example 1: Universal Gravitation

The decisive insight was not calculation but recognition:

The same law governs apples and planets.

Apples and planets belong to AR

The law binding them belongs to RA

Recognizing this unity is RW

Once seen, it cannot be unseen.

Example 2: Constancy of the Speed of Light

Before equations, there was a boundary recognition:

The speed of light must be invariant.

This is not derived from prior physics.

It is a structural necessity imposed on reality.

Formal relativity comes later via Reason.

The recognition itself is RW.

Example 3: Conservation Laws

Energy, momentum, and charge conservation are:

not objects

not sensory

not empirical generalizations

They are conditions under which physical description is possible.

Recognizing conservation is RW.

Deriving equations is Reason.

Example 4: Gödel’s Incompleteness Insight

Beyond the proof lies the recognition:

No sufficiently powerful formal system can be both complete and consistent.

This is logic seeing its own boundary.

The proof is reason.

The boundary-recognition is RW.

Example 5: Life as an Ontic Level

Before molecular explanations, there was recognition:

Life is not reducible to chemistry.

This is not mysticism.

It is the recognition of a new organizing level.

That recognition is RW.

Biochemistry afterward is Reason.

6. What RW Is Not

RW is not:

emotional intuition

poetic metaphor

cultural wisdom

psychological feeling

RW is structural insight without mediation.

It is quiet, sober, and irreversible.

7. Reason vs. WuXing (Integrated Contrast)

Dimension

Reason

WuXing

Domain

Relative (AR / RR)

Absolute-related (RA / AA)

Mode

Inference

Disclosure

Movement

Step-by-step

Non-sequential

Dependence

Concepts & relations

Whole instance

Language

Essential

Borrowed

Output

Knowledge within reality

Recognition of reality’s ground

Failure

Contradiction

Silence

8. Why Reason Cannot Reach AA

Reason always demands:

cause

ground

explanation

But AA has none.

Therefore:

Asking reason to reach AA

is like asking a ruler to measure itself.

The tool presupposes what it seeks.

9. RW as the Gateway to AW

RW ends with a quiet realization:

“This structure itself has no ground here.”

RW still sees structure.

AW sees that even structure ends.

AW does not explain AA.

It recognizes that explanation itself has ended.

10. Final Statement

Reason perfects the world.

RW reveals the world’s structure.

AW ends the demand for explanation altogether.

Reason builds ladders.

RW sees what the ladder rests on.

AW sees that nothing supports the ground itself.

That is not failure.

That is ontological completion.