Event

General Definition

In the philosophical tradition, “event” is often treated as an unpredictable rupture (Badiou) or as a displacement of a regime of meaning (Deleuze, Foucault). In the Ontology of Emergent Complexity, the event is a material reorganization that modifies the operative coherence of a system — without the need for a plan, subject, or epiphany.

Ontological Variations in the Ontology of Emergent Complexity

Symbolic Event

Only in certain evolutionary and technical regimes can this reorganization acquire symbolic form. An event is only symbolic when, in addition to functional reorganization, there occurs a material inscription of relational difference, capable of being resumed, transmitted, or reinscribed. The symbolic, here, is not the essence of the event, but a late and situated variation, arising in fields of high operative complexity.

Event As Relational Inscription of Difference

An event only acquires symbolic value when the reorganized difference is inscribed in a shareable relationship, supported by a material medium capable of conserving, reiterating, and operating that difference. The symbolic, in this context, is neither origin nor substance — it is a late variation of certain events where the relationship stabilizes as form.

Event As Effect of Functional Subjectivation

A symbolic event does not require a subject in the classic sense of consciousness or identity. But it requires an instance capable of reorganizing difference in a relational and operative manner — which, in the OCE, defines functional subjectivation. Only systems endowed with material support, iterative capacity, and relational inscription can produce symbolic events. Outside of this, there is reorganization — but there is no symbolic.

Event As Gesture of Operative Foundation

When a local reorganization establishes a new functional coherence, an event with structuring value may arise — but this does not, in itself, imply the symbolic. An event is only symbolic if this coherence is inscribed materially in a relational, iterable, and operative way within a system capable of maintaining this difference as a trace. Foundation is not essentialist: it is situated, provisional, and dependent on specific material conditions.

Event As Non-Chronological Instability

In the OCE, occurring is a material reorganization that alters the functional coherence of a system — without this implying symbolic inscription. The vast majority of events in the universe remain outside of any symbolic regime. Only later, starting from complex systems capable of memory and relation, can an event be reinscribed as symbolic. The symbolic is not in the phenomenon itself, but in the distant observation that transforms it into a shareable gesture.

Event As Potential Ethical Cut

Not every symbolic event implies ethics. A symbolic inscription can reorganize the real operatively — like a mathematical equation or a technical algorithm — without any summoning of finitude. Only when the inscribed difference demands a response facing the vulnerability of an other does the symbolic gesture transform into an ethical cut. Ethics, in the OCE, is not in the symbol itself, but in the responsibility that arises when the inscription touches relational finitude.

Symbolic Event As Inscription with Operative Support

The symbolic is only possible when the reorganized difference is inscribed in a material support capable of conserving, iterating, and relating that difference. The support is not a passive medium: it is the condition of emergence of the inscription. Whether biological or technical, a system only becomes symbolic if it has already reorganized its matter in a way that operates difference with shareable value. Without this operative basis, there is no inscription — and without inscription, there is no symbolization.

Symbolic Event As Iterable Inscription with Relational Value

The symbolic does not depend on variation or novelty. It can emerge from repeated forms, provided they are inscribed in a system capable of operating this repetition as a shareable relationship. A symbolic event is not what breaks the pattern, but what reinscribes it as a field of meaning. Even unique phenomena only become symbolic if they are reinscribed in an iterable way — otherwise, they remain opaque to shared intelligibility.