Wolfgang Neuhaus

This paper develops an account of structure within a process-based ontology by introducing the concept of sedimentation. It argues that structures are not static entities or underlying substrates, but dynamically stabilized patterns emerging from repeated interactions. By interpreting structure as sedimented play, the paper explains how persistence can arise without presupposing fixed foundations. This framework provides a unified account of stability, constraint, and transformation across physical, biological, and social systems.

This paper develops a process-oriented ontology in which being is understood as “play”: a dynamic configuration of interactions, degrees of freedom, and emergent regularities. Against substance-based and information-theoretic ontologies, it argues that reality consists not of underlying entities or pre-given structures, but of relational processes that continuously generate and transform stability. “Play” is introduced as a conceptual framework to describe how patterns, rules, and structures emerge immanently through recurring interactions and balancing processes between order and disorder. Within this framework, rules are neither externally imposed nor fundamentally fixed, but arise contingently and stabilize through resistance and repetition. The paper further interprets life and consciousness as reflexive forms of play in which the world becomes capable of relating to itself. By rejecting teleological explanations and first-cause metaphysics, the proposed ontology conceives of reality as an open-ended process of becoming.