Ontology of Absence
Ketsuraku no Sonzairon [Ontology of Absence] is a three-volume work by Noman Lee, forthcoming from Information Philosophy Press in 2026.
The work develops a new metaphysical framework centered on absence, subtraction, memory, and generative process. Its central claim is that reality should not be understood primarily through addition, substance, or representation, but through the cutting of possibility into determinate forms.
Information is not what is added to the world. It is what remains when possibility is subtracted.
Matter is not the opposite of information. It is a stabilized subtraction from a field of possibility.
Life is not merely a mechanism added to matter. It is a structure that reproduces its own mode of forgetting.
Mind is not a container of representations. It is the intensified temporal thickness of memory, perception, and action.
Volume I: Foundations
The first volume introduces the basic concepts of the ontology of absence: subtraction, cut, memory, perception, absence, and the reversal of ordinary realism. It argues that what we call the world is already the result of a series of cuts through which possibility is narrowed into actuality.
Volume II: Physics
The second volume applies the framework to physics. It examines the quantum vacuum, particle creation, symmetry, Noether’s theorem, Landauer’s principle, entropy, and the arrow of time. It proposes that physical reality can be read as a structure of stabilized subtraction.
Volume III: Life
The third volume applies the framework to life, evolution, and the origin of biological form. It develops the idea of life as the reproduction of forgetting and reinterprets Bergson’s élan vital in relation to contemporary discussions of developmental bias, variational bias, niche construction, and the origin of life.
Related English Essays
Information Is Subtraction
The Direction of Subtraction
Dismantling the Élan Vital
Memory Is Not in the Brain
Why Must Something Be Stored Somewhere?
Generative Logic
A list of English preprints is available here:
https://infophilosophy.com/en/research/
Bibliographic Information
Noman Lee. Ketsuraku no Sonzairon [Ontology of Absence], 3 vols. Tokyo: Information Philosophy Press, 2026. ISBN: forthcoming.