Fundamentals of ontological psychology. The ontology of an infinite field of potencies

Dialogue as an Engine of Knowledge Evolution

This book was born out of dialogue. From the insistence on finding a common language between the exact sciences and the humanities, between objective observation and subjective experience, between the chaos of creative search and the cosmos of proven theories. The ontology of the Infinite Field of Potencies (IFP) is not the fruit of speculative speculation, but the result of an attempt to comprehend a complete picture of reality, in which consciousness, life and society appear not as random anomalies in the mechanistic universe, but as natural and fundamental manifestations of its deep nature.

The crisis of reductionism, so obvious today, lies in its dumbness to the face of complexity. By breaking the world down into details, we lose the meaning of the whole. We have brilliant theories about the functioning of the neuron and global models of economics, but we do not understand how poetry is born out of electrical impulses and cultural revolutions out of individual decisions. We sorely lack a metalanguage capable of describing the continuity of evolution from elementary particles to political institutions.

IFP theory offers this language. It sees in the Universe not a set of objects, but a hierarchy of processes – an infinite dialogue unfolding in time between two non-discontinuous beginnings: the Infinite (the unmanifested field of all possibilities, potency, chaos) and the Actual (the manifested, stable structure, embodied form, cosmos). Cognition, life, creativity – all these are different forms of actualization, the birth of a new one out of this eternally fruitful Infinite.

This work is an invitation to dialogue for psychologists, educators, sociologists and anyone else who wants to understand the laws of complex systems. We consciously avoid excessive mathematization, trying to convey the essence of the concept – its philosophical depth and practical power. The mathematical apparatus here serves not as a goal, but as a support for intuition, a way to test the rigor of our metaphors.

We will move from general ontological principles to their concrete implementation in the psyche, cognition and society, in order to eventually return to practice – the art of conscious participation in this great dialogue.

The crisis of reductionism and the need for a new language

Modern science has made incredible strides, but it has run into a fundamental limitation: it explains simple systems perfectly, but is powerless in the face of complex ones. We can predict the movement of the planets, but we can’t predict a stock market crash. We can describe the biochemistry of neurotransmitters, but we can’t explain the nature of the Self. This crisis is caused by the very paradigm of reductionism, which:

– Divides: Studies the elements of a system in isolation, losing its emergent properties.

– Static: It searches for immutable laws and constants, whereas complex systems are dynamic and historical.

– Objectifies: Excludes the observer from the picture of the world, making it impossible to describe consciousness.

We need a new way of thinking. Without giving up accuracy, we must add integrity to it. The IFP ontology offers such a synthesis. Its central meta-handicap is the «actualization spectrum».

Any complex system – be it an atom, a cell, a person, or a nation-at any given time has a certain «spectrum» of possible states into which it can move. This spectrum is neither infinitely wide nor static. It is shaped by the system’s past experience, its history, and its «habits». The strength of these habits is the probability of one or another actualization.

Thus, the universe appears not as a mechanism, but as a hierarchy of actualization processes, where each level is simultaneously:

– Actual for the level below: a stable, structured environment that sets the rules of the game.

– Infinite for the level above: a reservoir of opportunities, a source of novelty and unpredictability.

The cell is actual for molecules, but Infinite for the organ. The individual is actual for his neurons, but Infinite for the group. This inter-embeddedness creates a continuous fabric of being, permeated with feedbacks.

In this picture of the world, the brain is unique not in its complexity, but in its plasticity

– the speed and depth with which it can rebuild its own spectrum of actualization. It is a place where the universe gains reflexivity, the ability to be aware of and change itself directionally. And the Infinite can be likened to a global meta-brain, in which everything exists as a potency, actualized in an endless dialogue with itself through feedback, in an eternal search for balance between the chaos of creation and the order of form.

The balance of actual and potential

The ontology of the Infinite Field of Potencies is based on the distinction between two principles that are not reducible to each other, but also do not exist without each other:

The infinite (Potency) is an unformed, undifferentiated, virtual state of being. This is the field of all possibilities that are not yet manifested, but already exist in the form of tendencies, latent structures, Potencies. It is not just «nothing»; it is a rich, rich «not-yet-being», a source of novelty, creativity and unpredictability. In psychology, it corresponds to the unconscious, implicit knowledge, intuition. In physics-quantum superposition, vacuum fluctuations.

The actual is manifested, formed, realized being. This is everything that has a shape, structure, can be measured and described. This is a realized opportunity that has become a fact. A neural network, a social institution, and a written text are all actual.

It is important to understand: these are not two different worlds, but two aspects of the same reality. Any active structure bears the trace of its origin from the Infinite and contains the potential for a new transformation. Any Infinite exists only relative to some level of Actuality.

Chaos and Cosmic: not enemies, but partners

Traditionally, chaos is perceived as a threat to order. In the IFP ontology, this dichotomy is removed.

Chaos is the dynamic aspect of the Infinite, a state of uncertainty from which the new is born. This is not a destructive force, but a creative one, although it requires the courage to meet her.

Cosmic is a stable aspect of the Present, an established order that provides stability and predictability. This is not a fixed dogma, but a necessary stage that allows you to accumulate resources for the next step into the Infinite.

The evolution of any complex system is an eternal movement between these poles: from Chaos to Cosmos (through actualization and structuring) and from Cosmos to Chaos (through destructurization and return to potency for a new round of complexity). The health of a system lies in its ability to maintain this dynamic balance, rather than falling into the extremes of total chaos or ossified order.

Dynamic balance as the basis of existence

The existence of any complex system, from the cell to human society, is possible only in a dynamic balance between the Infinite and the Actual. This balance is not a static equilibrium, but a constant process of mutual transition and transformation.

When a system is excessively focused on the Actual, it becomes rigid, loses its ability to adapt and update. Its range of actualization narrows, and its behavior becomes predictable and stereotyped. In the human psyche, this manifests itself as freedom of thought, avoidance of novelty; in society, it manifests itself as stagnation, totalitarianism, and suppression of dissent.

When the system is reoriented to the Infinite, it risks losing its integrity and identity. Its behavior becomes unpredictable, chaotic, and disorganized. On the scale of the psyche, this can be expressed as psychotic states, the disintegration of the individual; on the scale of society – as anarchy, revolutionary chaos, loss of social cohesion.

Thus, the «health» of a system is determined by its ability to maintain an optimal balance between these two poles for these conditions, while maintaining both stability and plasticity.

Hierarchy of actualization levels

One of the key provisions of the IFP ontology is the principle of hierarchical nesting of actualization levels. Reality is not a flat structure, but a complex hierarchy, where each level is both Actual and Infinite:

– Quantum level: Infinite – quantum superposition, virtual parts. Actual – collapse of the wave function, observed particles.

– Biological level: Infinite – genetic potential, latent capabilities of the organism. Actual – phenotype, implemented physical and biochemical structures.

– Psychic level: Infinite-unconscious, implicit knowledge, creative potential. Actual – consciousness, explicit thoughts, stable patterns of behavior.

– Social level: Infinite – cultural potential, social innovations, emerging trends. Relevance – institutions, norms, established social structures.

Each overlying level arises from the Infinite underlying level through the processes of self-organization and emergence of emergent properties. At the same time, the higher levels have the opposite effect on the lower ones, creating a complex network of mutual influences.

Creative nature of actualization

Actualization is not a passive process of «manifesting» pre-defined forms, but an active creative act. At the moment of updating, there is not just a choice of pre – given options, but a genuine creation of novelty.

This is especially noticeable at the level of human creativity and social innovation. The artist who creates a new work, or the social entrepreneur who develops a new model of community organization, does not just «choose» from existing opportunities, but actually creates something fundamentally new.

In terms of IFP, this means that the Infinite does not contain ready-made «forms», but rather a potency for the formation of new configurations. Actualization is the process of realizing these Potencies in a unique historical context.

This creative aspect of actualization distinguishes the IFP ontology from deterministic models and opens up a space for genuine novelty and creativity in the universe.

Dynamics of actualization: dissipation, resonance, self-organization

The transition from the Infinite to the Actual takes place through three interrelated processes: dissipation, resonance, and self-organization. These processes describe how potential is transformed into reality at different levels of being.

Dissipation is the process of energy and information dissipation, which creates conditions for the emergence of a new order. In thermodynamics, dissipative systems are systems that are far from equilibrium and are capable of self-organization. In psychology, this is the willingness to abandon old patterns, to allow yourself to experience uncertainty.

Resonance is the process of amplifying vibrations when frequencies coincide. In IFP, resonance is understood as a mechanism for selecting and enhancing certain Potencies from the Infinite. Ideas, images, and people resonate when their internal frequencies match.

Self-organization is a spontaneous process of forming order out of chaos. This is the emergence of new structures and patterns without the involvement of an external control factor. Self-organization occurs when the system reaches a critical point of balance between the Infinite and the Actual.

Actualization Package

Actualization package is a key concept in the IFP ontology, denoting a complete set of related Potencies that are actualized together as a single whole.

In cognitive science, an actualization package can correspond to a cognitive schema or behavioral pattern. In social dynamics – in a social movement or cultural trend.

Update packages have varying degrees of stability – the ability to maintain their integrity under external influences. Highly stable packets form attractors in the phase space of the system.

Actualization spectrum

The actualization spectrum is the probability distribution of different states of the system. A wide range indicates high plasticity and creativity of the system; a narrow range indicates rigidity and predictability.

The dynamics of the actualization spectrum describes the evolution of the system over time. Learning and development can be characterized as an extension of the spectrum of actualization; trauma and fixation – as a narrowing of it.

Entropy and information

Although this book is aimed at a humanitarian audience, some mathematical concepts can help clarify the ontological principles of IFP.

Entropy in the context of IFP can be interpreted as a measure of uncertainty, a variety of Infinite Potencies. High entropy corresponds to a rich, diverse field of Potencies; low entropy corresponds to a limited, narrow field.

Information is understood as reducing uncertainty, choosing certain patterns from a variety of possible ones. Actualization always implies an increase in the amount of information (in the mathematical sense) due to a decrease in entropy.

Network theory and catastrophe theory

Network theory provides a powerful tool for describing the structure of relationships between system elements. In IFP, network models can be used to display updating models at different levels.

Catastrophe theory offers models for describing sudden, abrupt changes in systems – moments of radical transformation, when minor causes lead to significant consequences. These moments correspond to transitions between different attractors in the phase space of the system.

Free energy and the principle of least action

The concept of free energy formulated by Karl Friston provides a unified basis for understanding the behavior of self-organizing systems. The principle of free energy minimization can be interpreted as a fundamental imperative for all systems – from biological to cognitive and social.

In the IFP ontology, free energy minimization corresponds to the system’s desire for an optimal balance between exploration (exploration of the Infinite) and exploitation (use of the Actual).

Dynamical systems theory: a language for describing a emergence

The IFP ontology finds its natural formal language in the theory of dynamical systems. This mathematical discipline studies systems that evolve over time according to certain rules, which perfectly corresponds to our idea of reality as a continuous process of actualization.

The key concept here is the phase space – an abstract space, each point of which completely describes the state of the system at some point in time. The motion of the system is represented by a trajectory in this space.

In the context of IFP, the phase space of a system is a mathematical representation of its Infinite: the set of all possible states in which it could be located. The actualization spectrum corresponds to the probability distribution of finding the system in different regions of this space.

Of particular interest are attractors – subsets of the phase space that the system tends to attract over time. Attractors in IFP theory

– this is a mathematical embodiment of stable actual patterns that have developed as a result of the historical process of actualization.

Strange attractors, characterized by a complex fractal structure, are especially important for describing creative and chaotic processes. They demonstrate how a deterministic system can exhibit complex, unpredictable behavior, which corresponds to our understanding of the dialectic of predestination and freedom in the process of actualization.

The theory of bifurcations describes qualitative rearrangements of the system when parameters change-moments when small causes give rise to large effects. These moments of phase transitions correspond to critical points in the IFP ontology, when the system is particularly susceptible to new actualization opportunities.

Information theory: a measure of uncertainty and complexity

Information theory provides a powerful tool for quantifying the fundamental processes of the IFP ontology. Claude Shannon defined entropy as a measure of the uncertainty of a random variable: the higher the entropy, the less predictable the result.

In the context of IFP, the Shannon entropy is a measure of the wealth of the Infinite

– diversity of potential system states. High entropy corresponds to the state of maximum uncertainty, when all potencies are equally probable.

The act of actualization, the choice of a particular state, reduces the entropy of the system and generates information. Thus, information appears as a reduction in uncertainty in the process of moving from the Infinite to the Actual.

However, the concept of entropy is not sufficient to describe complex organized systems. A crystal and a living organism may have low entropy, but their organization is fundamentally different. Here you need the concept of complexity or negentropy (negative entropy).

Complex systems in the theory of IFP are systems with a highly structured actualization spectrum, where the probabilities of various states are distributed not randomly, but reflect the accumulated historical experience and internal limitations of the system.

Complexity measures, such as the Kolmogorov algorithmic complexity (the minimum size of a program that reproduces a given structure) or complexity profile (scale distribution of complexity), measure the degree of organization of a system and its ability to perform complex behavior.

Category theory: mathematics of relations and structures

Category theory offers the most abstract and powerful language for describing the IFP ontology. Unlike set theory, which focuses on the internal structure of objects, category theory focuses on the relationships between objects and the structure of these relationships.

In category theory, objects are defined not by their internal properties, but by their relations to other objects by means of morphisms (arrows). This fully corresponds to the IFP principle, according to which the essence of any phenomenon is revealed in its interrelations and interactions.

The concept of hierarchical nesting of actualization levels finds natural expression in category theory through the concepts of functors (maps between categories) and natural transformations (maps between functors). Each level of reality can be represented as a category, and relationships between levels can be represented as structure-preserving functions.

Category theory provides a precise language for describing the phenomenon of the emergence of a new quality at higher levels of the organization. In particular, the concept of contiguity describes the relationship between the whole and its parts, which allows us to formulate mathematically the principles of holism and reductionism.

The concept of topos (a special category of types) provides a unifying framework for mathematics and logic, which allows us to consider various aspects of reality within a single formal structure. This is especially valuable for the IFP ontology, which strives for a unified description of reality at all levels.

Introduction: The Psyche as an interface for actualization

Classical psychological models, from Freudian topography to the five-factor model of personality, tend to reify the psyche by presenting it as stable structures or configurations of traits. The ontology of the Infinite Field of Potencies (IFP) offers a fundamentally different paradigm, considering the psyche not as a set of entities, but as a dynamic, continuous process – a highly organized and stable pattern of actualization of Potencies within the hierarchical feedback loop «organism-environment». In this chapter, personality will be considered not as a static given, but as a unique, historically formed spectrum of probabilities of actualization of specific behavioral, cognitive, and affective patterns from the Infinite field of all possible ones. Neurosis and psychological distress are interpreted here as narrowing this spectrum, focusing on a limited set of attractors, while mental health and maturity are interpreted as maintaining the optimal complexity, plasticity, and throughput of this interface, which provides a rich and adaptive dialogue between the inner and outer worlds.

Ontological model of the psyche: The Infinite, the Actual, and the Interface of Consciousness

The fundamental ontological dichotomy of IFP is directly embodied in the structure of mental life. The infinite in the context of the psyche is the totality of all non-actualized but possible psychic contents: latent memories, unconscious drives, unrealized creative impulses, archetypal images, as well as the full potential of neural connections that are not currently involved. It is an analog of Jungian collective and individual unconsciousness, but reinterpreted

in terms of dynamical theory of complex systems and quantum field theory as a fundamental reservoir of potential.

The actual is a phenomenologically experienced reality: a stream of consciousness, current perceptual data, clearly perceived thoughts and feelings, that is, everything that has been actualized at a given moment in time from the Infinite. The actual is not stable; it is a constantly updating and rearranging configuration, similar to the dissipative structure in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, which exists due to continuous exchange with the Infinite.

The key element of the model is the interface of consciousness – not a place, but a process, a mechanism of selection and actualization. Its function is to make an undirected and then directed «request» to the Infinite and to «receive» a response in the form of an actualized content. This process is governed by the principle of free energy minimization in its generalized sense, i.e., the system’s tendency to reduce uncertainty and surprise in its interaction with the environment. However, unlike the classical theory of predictive coding, IFP postulates that a healthy interface should balance between minimizing the prediction error (stability, security) and manageably increasing this error through creative search and assimilation of new experiences (growth, development). It is in this dialectical tension between the desire for order and openness to chaos that complexity – psychological complexity-is born.