Formalizing Regularities of Viability: Known, Candidate, and Yet-Unidentified Regularities in the Reality of the Field of Life

This article proposes a formalization of the Open Space of Viability Regularities as a scientific interface between the philosophical and methodological concept of the Source of Life and the empirical investigation of the Reality of the Field of Life within Vitology. The Source of Life is not introduced as a directly measurable physical quantity, a hidden universal cause, or an explanatory substitute for what science does not yet understand. Instead, Vitology formalizes the scientifically accessible domain of investigation: established regularities, candidate regularities, and an epistemically open region whose specific content is presently unknown. The article distinguishes among established regularities, candidate regularities, rejected or restricted constructs, and an as-yet unspecified domain of possible regularities. It emphasizes that the unknown domain is not a known collection of “hidden laws” and cannot be used to explain arbitrary unexplained phenomena. An operational structure for describing a viability regularity is proposed. It includes the domain of application, system class, boundary and initial conditions, variables, the form of the relation, temporal horizon, uncertainty, distinctive prediction, and falsification or restriction conditions. The article also formalizes the transition from an unexplained observational residual to a recurring pattern, a candidate regularity, independent testing, and, where sufficient evidence is obtained, incorporation into the domain of established scientific knowledge. Particular attention is given to distinguishing regularity, correlation, mechanism, causality, scientific law, and philosophical interpretation. Vitology does not assume that every recurrence is a law, that every unexplained residual indicates a new regularity, or that existing scientific theories must be incomplete in any predetermined direction. The framework is connected with the viability-metrology sequence developed in G34–G38 and provides the conceptual foundation for the subsequent formalization of the nonlinear temporal architecture of viability. Keywords Vitology; viability; Source of Life; Field of Life; Reality of the Field of Life; regularity; scientific regularity; candidate regularity; open space of regularities; viability metrology; viability trajectory; hypothesis; reproducibility; falsifiability; cross-domain testing.