Space and the Point

Abstract

Author’s publication name: Max Scenner (Alexander Neretin). This philosophical and methodological study examines the conditions under which a point may be recognized as an admissible element of spatial description. The study challenges the conventional treatment of the point as a self-sufficient and primary element of description. Space is defined not as a thing, emptiness, container, or sum of points, but as the condition of position, relation, observation, and boundary. On this basis, the point is defined as the minimal form of a registered difference admissible for description. The study distinguishes between the ontological condition of the existence of a difference and its accessibility to a registering instance. It develops the concepts of registration, fixation, spatial determinacy, the spatial admissibility of the point, and the point’s debt to the conditions that make it possible. The central conclusion is that space is primary as the condition of position, relation, observation, and boundary, whereas the point is derivative as the minimal form of a registered difference admissible for description. The work provides the methodological foundation for the subsequent study “The Object as an Effect of Fixation.”