Physics frequently projects local models as universal truths: Newtonian mechanics is extended to all scales, quantum principles are assumed to hold everywhere, and field theories are generalised across the cosmos. While this promotes calculational simplicity, treating universality as ontologically guaranteed is misleading.
This is the distortion: context-bound models are mistaken for universally binding ontological principles.
The Physics Move
Newtonian gravity was historically applied universally, despite its known breakdown at relativistic scales.
Quantum field theories are extrapolated to extreme energies and cosmological domains.
Cosmological constants and parameters are often treated as globally uniform, masking relational contingencies.
Why This Overextends Ontology
Universality overrides perspectival and relational nuance:
It obscures the dependence of phenomena on context, scale, and alignment.
It treats a model’s domain of validity as ontologically exhaustive.
It creates the impression of a fully determinate, scale-independent reality, sidelining actualisation’s relational specificity.
The distortion lies in flattening context into necessity: what is locally intelligible is misread as universally binding.
The Relational Reframing
From a relational standpoint:
Laws and constants are domain-specific codifications of relational alignments, not universal edicts.
Observed regularities emerge from contextual patterns, intelligible within relational constraints rather than imposed globally.
Recognising universality as model-bound, not absolute, preserves the primacy of context and actualisation in reality.
Thus, universality is intelligible — but only as a pragmatic extension of local patterns, not as a primitive feature of being.
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