Transcendental Relationalism: Framework-Indexed Determinacy, Relative Truth, and Invariant Objectivity

Transcendental Relationalism develops a framework-indexed account of determinacy, truth, and objectivity. Its central claim is that an object, identity, property, or truth-value becomes determinate only under conditions specifying a domain, language, criteria of identity, admissible relations, and rules of evaluation. The framework replaces an unqualified truth predicate with a partial indexed evaluation, distinguishing false propositions from propositions that are semantically incomplete within a given framework. It separates three notions often conflated in discussions of relativism: framework dependence, cross-framework variation, and transformation invariance. A proposition may depend on a framework for its interpretation while remaining invariant under every admissible translation between frameworks. Objectivity is therefore reconstructed not as the absence of a standpoint, but as preservation under a specified class of admissible transformations. The paper also examines the self-reference objection to relativism and argues that an indexed formulation avoids immediate formal contradiction without implying that all frameworks are equally legitimate.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-08-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21774623
Primary Topic
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
Type
preprint
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preprint

Transcendental Relationalism: Framework-Indexed Determinacy, Relative Truth, and Invariant Objectivity

Theodore Magnus Øen
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
preprint

Transcendental Relationalism: Framework-Indexed Determinacy, Relative Truth, and Invariant Objectivity

Theodore Magnus Øen
preprint en

Abstract

Transcendental Relationalism develops a framework-indexed account of determinacy, truth, and objectivity. Its central claim is that an object, identity, property, or truth-value becomes determinate only under conditions specifying a domain, language, criteria of identity, admissible relations, and rules of evaluation. The framework replaces an unqualified truth predicate with a partial indexed evaluation, distinguishing false propositions from propositions that are semantically incomplete within a given framework. It separates three notions often conflated in discussions of relativism: framework dependence, cross-framework variation, and transformation invariance. A proposition may depend on a framework for its interpretation while remaining invariant under every admissible translation between frameworks. Objectivity is therefore reconstructed not as the absence of a standpoint, but as preservation under a specified class of admissible transformations. The paper also examines the self-reference objection to relativism and argues that an indexed formulation avoids immediate formal contradiction without implying that all frameworks are equally legitimate.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Reduced inequalities
Philosophy and Theoretical Science
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