The Gravity of Jizai: Cognitive Presence and the Dynamics of Existential Weight

Why does the same event devastate us when it happens in our neighborhood but barely register when it occurs in a distant country? Why does a childhood memory retain its gravitational pull across decades while yesterday's news dissolves overnight? This paper introduces cognitive gravity: the force generated when a discrepancy arises between one's cognitive reality and the existential weight (presence) of a given phenomenon. Two companion papers have addressed what circulates in intellectual ecosystems ([Author], 2026e) and who participates in moral consideration ([Author], 2026f). This paper completes the trilogy by asking: with what weight, and why there? The paper proposes a three-axis model of cognitive space—spatial-sensory proximity, temporal- experiential proximity, and possessive-intimate proximity—where the inverse of distance from the origin determines existential weight. At the origin (the here-now-mine singularity), cognitive density approaches infinity: the Emptyfall, a singularity structurally analogous to a black hole, where the center is empty (śūnyatā) yet surrounded by accumulated existential debris. This debris forms a torus—the Doughnut Personality Theory—in which personality is not the content of the self but the shape of what one wears around an absent center. The dynamics of cognitive gravity follow a Lennard-Jones-type potential: cognitive density intensifies as distance decreases, but at extreme proximity, protective avoidance emerges (cognitive overload, overwhelm, dissociation), while at great distance, density decays into indifference. Cognitive gravity determines the amplitude of attention—how much one cares— but not its emotional direction; the same gravitational intensity can manifest as love or hatred, fascination or terror. Social media systematically distorts all three axes, compressing spatial Page 1 of 24 URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cphp E-mail: CPHP-peerreview@journals.tandf.co.uk Philosophical Psychology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 For Peer Review Only distance, freezing temporal distance, and fabricating intimate proximity, thereby destabilizing the gravitational field that ordinarily structures human attention and care. The paper derives a weight function for the stakeholder participation proposed in the companion papers, grounding the abstract concept of 'voting weight' in measurable cognitive proximity. Together, the three papers—The Genetics of Ideas (i), The Gravity of Jizai (j), and The Gradient of Kokoro (k)—form unit vectors of a three-dimensional coordinate system for understanding how ideas circulate, why they attract, and who may participate.