Unification under Constraint (UC) is a theoretical framework that examines what happens when attempts to unify descriptions, models, or regimes fail—not accidentally, but structurally. Rather than assuming that coherence, consistency, or integration must always be achievable, UC treats unification as a constrained operation whose feasibility depends on the interaction of admissibility conditions. In this view, failure to unify is not necessarily a flaw to be repaired, but a meaningful outcome that reveals limits of coordination imposed by the constraints themselves. UC analyzes unification attempts at a level prior to models, metrics, or objectives. It focuses on how constraints interact, how admissible descriptions can be exhausted, and how certain demands for global coherence collapse the descriptive space without producing contradiction or error. Such collapse is interpreted as structural exhaustion, not inconsistency. The framework distinguishes several regimes of unification outcome, including cases where unification is preserved, cases where it can only be maintained through structural deformation, and cases where the possibility of restoration cannot be decided without altering the descriptive regime itself. In these latter regimes, refusal is not a choice or a limitation of the agent, but a structurally stable result. UC introduces no mechanisms, algorithms, or prescriptions. It does not propose how to unify, optimize, or resolve conflicts. Its role is strictly diagnostic: to determine when unification ceases to be admissible, and what can be learned from that boundary. UC does not subsume or ground other theoretical frameworks. Instead, it delineates a domain in which coordination, learning, or integration must proceed without global unification, or not at all. In doing so, it reframes learning as something that may begin only once the limits of unification have been reached and acknowledged. © 2025 ΔR7 / KoR Version: V1 License: CC BY-NC 4.0Status: Pre-field boundary frameworkDistribution: PDF / Mirror.xyz / IPFS / TraceLockTraceLock ID: SHA=857df0842c9fff6e4869a2ee63ac9faaf1849f52d4d3c5a9580ab03f1aad4e00
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