The Theory of Ontological Boundaries: Measure and Identity of Phenomena

This paper introduces the Theory of Ontological Boundaries, a universal conceptual framework describing how phenomena exist, persist, and transform through the limits of their own measure. Building on classical philosophical notions and modern systems science, the work provides a rigorous definition of measure as the set of ontological limits within which a phenomenon maintains its identity. The article illustrates how this principle operates across physical, biological, social, cognitive, and technological domains, linking metaphysical concepts with models of structural stability, threshold transitions, and phase changes in complex systems