Nothingness as Boundary: A Structural Ontology for Differentiation

This paper presents a minimal structural ontology of nothingness as a foundational framework for structural differentiation theory. The central claim is that absolute nothingness is not logically constructible, because any attempt to define or represent it necessarily introduces distinction, relation, and structure. In contrast, relative nothingness appears as a boundary between differentiated structures. A key contribution of this work is the explicit distinction between epistemic and ontological claims. While absolute nothingness is epistemically unrepresentable, it is further argued that within a structural ontology, existence requires distinguishability, relation, or structure. Therefore, absolute nothingness is not merely unrepresentable, but structurally inadmissible within the same framework. This leads to a reinterpretation of existence: existence is not a static fullness, but a differentiated structural field in which boundaries generate differences, and differences generate structure. The paper provides a foundational ontological layer for Structural Differentiation Cosmology (SDC) and the Integrated Structural Generation (IGS) framework. Importantly, it does not derive physical dynamics, but instead defines the conditions under which dynamical postulates (such as dC/dt > 0) become meaningful. The work reframes the classical philosophical question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” into a structural question: “Why is nothingness thinkable only as boundary within something?” All figures are reproducible via the included Python code. --- Author: Koji Okino Affiliation: Independent Researcher / SD Lab LLC Year: 2026