Ontological Distinctions and Their Domain Dependence

Philosophical distinctions do not carry their validity with them across contexts. This paper begins from a broader philosophical problem: why do universal ontologies so often fail when their distinctions are extended beyond the domains that sustain them? It examines how key philosophical distinctions—such as object, identity, causality, and structure—depend on the domains in which they operate. It argues that when moving between domains, the differences these distinctions rely on may not be preserved. In such cases, they lose their discriminative power and cannot be applied in the same way. The paper distinguishes between two ways of extending concepts: attempting to preserve them invariantly and adapting them…