The Principle of Identity: Preserved Coherence Under Change
Why coherence persists while everything changes
The Principle of Identity: Preserved Coherence Under Change presents a structural account of identity that moves beyond substance-based and narrative-based definitions.
Instead of asking what something is, the book asks under what conditions something remains the same while undergoing change.
The central claim is simple but rigorous:
Identity exists where coherence is preserved within bounded tolerances of change.
This principle is formulated as domain-independent. It does not rely on biological life, consciousness, material composition, or temporal metaphysics. It applies equally to physical systems, living organisms, cognitive processes and social structures.
The book develops:
- a structural criterion for identity across change
- the role of tolerance and disturbance
- the distinction between passive stability and maintained coherence
- the relation between identity and time without treating time as causal
- gradations of identity without categorical boundaries
Rather than offering a metaphysical theory of substance, this work proposes a methodological framework for analyzing continuity, persistence and transformation.
It serves as the foundational text for Structural Identity Theory and provides the conceptual ground for later work on time, consciousness and meaning.