From Pure Systems Philosophy to an Existential Philosophy of Erosion: Reconstructing Emergence in Far-from-Equilibrium Systems Through an Ontology of Finite Continuity

Abstract Contemporary theories of emergence grounded in far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics successfully explain how complex order arises through instability, fluctuation, and self-organization. However, these approaches generally remain descriptive, treating emergence as a property of physical or informational systems while neglecting its existential and normative dimensions. This article argues that a comprehensive philosophy of emergence requires four conceptual reconstructions that transform a systems-theoretical model into an existential ontology. Building upon the concepts of finite continuity, erosion, threshold sufficiency, and structural subjectivity, the paper reconstructs emergence through four interconnected dimensions. First, erosion is reformulated not as external disturbance but as the constitutive condition of open systems. Second, instability is reinterpreted through an ethics of "dwelling in opacity," where systemic regulation emerges not from conscious management but from the blind collision of ideological, fantasmatic, and material constraints. Third, temporal organization is expanded through the distinction between Chronos and Kairos, allowing qualitative transformation to emerge from quantitative continuity. Fourth, epistemological reflexivity is radicalized through the principle of "ontological vulnerability," rejecting any external Archimedean standpoint and recognizing theory itself as a dissipative structure whose validity lies in its immanent capacity for collapse and reconstruction. The result is an existential philosophy of far-from-equilibrium systems in which emergence is understood not merely as spontaneous order formation but as the ontological consequence of finite persistence under irreversible erosion—a persistence that is written upon the skin and body of the subject and that keeps theory perpetually on the threshold of its own dissolution and renewal. Keywords: Emergence; Far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics; Dissipative systems; Finite continuity; Erosion; Dwelling in opacity; Ontological vulnerability; Structural subjectivity.