Reflexive Closure on Approximate Individuation - Naturalism without Special Pleading

This paper explores whether naturalism can remain a coherent metaphysical position without special pleading once exact individuation is no longer taken for granted. It develops a view called Approximative Realism, according to which objects, boundaries, identities, causes, meanings, and even agents are not exactly individuated but exist as sufficiently stable “as-if” patterns. The central idea is that this perspective becomes coherent only under a condition of reflexive closure: approximation must apply not only to the world but also to representation, reasoning, and theorising themselves. The paper does not argue from authority or empirical proof, but examines whether this inversion yields a consistent, unified framework that dissolves familiar puzzles (vagueness, persistence, subject–object dualism) while preserving ordinary practice.