Introduction to Instancology

Introduction to Instancology

Instancology, or the philosophy of paradigms, offers a radical rethinking of metaphysics, epistemology, and ontology by placing the “instance” (范例) at the center of all understanding. Developed by the Chinese philosopher Wade Dong, Instancology posits that everything that exists or is known appears as an instance—neither merely a part of something greater, nor a product of mental construction, but as a concrete, self-contained expression of a deeper relational order.

At its core, Instancology challenges the Western philosophical tradition’s reliance on dualism, substance metaphysics, and abstract categories. It introduces a four-tiered relational framework:

AA (Absolute Absolute) – the unspeakable background that transcends all distinctions;

RA (Relatively Absolute) – the realm of pure laws, logic, and mathematics, unrepresented but determinative;

AR (Absolute Relative) – the domain of natural existence, including all entities that occur in nature;

RR (Relative Relative) – the world of human constructs, such as culture, technology, and language.

Each of these relational zones is not a substance or layer but a perspective defined by its mode of instancing. A mountain, a theorem, a poem, and even a dream are all instances—but each arises within a different relational mode and cannot be reduced to the others. The traditional philosophical obsession with causality, logic, and representation gives way here to a more fundamental principle: the paradigm-instance relationship, which precedes and grounds all conceptual thinking.

Instancology’s innovation lies not only in its ontological structure but also in its epistemology. It emphasizes 悟性 (WuXing)—a kind of intuitive insight or "eureka moment"—as a legitimate and essential form of knowledge, one that surpasses the empirical and rational. This allows Instancology to grasp the “whole” without relying on synthesis or analysis of parts, offering a solution to longstanding philosophical dilemmas, including the paradoxes of self-reference, the limits of reason, and the mind-body problem.

Unlike Western philosophy, which tends to move from being toward becoming or from idea to reality, Instancology begins with the instance as a self-sufficient whole and unfolds a new logic of truth from there. It does not merely add a new theory to philosophy—it proposes the end of philosophy as traditionally conceived, by reaching the top of truth: the Absolute Absolute, the final background against which all things are illuminated.