Ontology of Retention: Man Between Matter and Abstraction

The article proposes an operational ontological model in which man is defined as an "abstractor"–a being that transforms the material substrate into a meaningful reality through acts of distinction, naming, structuring, formalization, prediction, and retention. The initial aporia of the study is the question of the primacy of logic, language, or mathematics, resolved through the thesis of the ontological priority of abstraction itself as an activity. A fundamental distinction is introduced between two modes of being: Being-1 (matter as an independent, "silent" substrate possessing the property of resistance) and Being-2 (the abstract reality of meanings, numbers, laws, and values, existing exclusively in the mode of retention). The central category of the study – "retention" – is described as an active effort to prolong the existence of meaningful structures on the boundary between chaos (pure potentiality) and ideal order (dead form). The experimental retention of antihydrogen serves as a demonstration of the ontological fragility of Being-2 objects. In polemics with scientific realism, the thesis of the evolution of abstractions is substantiated as an alternative to the cumulative model of progress. Following A. Poincar, the laws of nature are interpreted as conventional instruments whose effectiveness is determined by practice. In contrast to Heidegger's "shepherd of being," the abstractor acts not as a listener but as a constructor and retainer of reality. The model is fundamentally non-anthropocentric, admitting the existence of other abstractors (artificial intelligence, collective subjects). The conclusion formulates the ethical implications of the concept: responsibility for the retention of Being-2 as a condition for preserving the human world.