U-CDORE: Universal Cause–Dynamics–Order–Regulation–Emergence: A Universal Organizational Framework and Mechanism-Aware Methodology for Theory Construction

Abstract

Scientific knowledge develops through interactions among observation, conceptual reasoning, mathematical formalization, prediction, and empirical evaluation. Contemporary research increasingly confronts large theoretical search spaces, disciplinary fragmentation, multi-scale complexity, unresolved foundational questions, and growing participation of artificial intelligence in scientific reasoning. This work presents U-CDORE — Universal Cause–Dynamics–Order–Regulation–Emergence — as a general organizational framework for analyzing systems and structuring theory construction across multiple domains. U-CDORE does not propose that all phenomena obey a single mathematical formalism or physical mechanism. Rather, it proposes that organized phenomena may often be productively investigated through five complementary questions: what produces or sustains change; how change propagates; what constraints organize the admissible possibilities; what mechanisms stabilize, modify, suppress, amplify, or reorganize them; and what higher-level patterns, functions, regimes, or effective laws emerge. The framework is therefore deliberately domain-independent. Cause, Dynamics, Order, Regulation, and Emergence may acquire different operational and mathematical realizations in physics, biology, learning, complex systems, economics, artificial intelligence, traditional knowledge systems, and other organized domains. Cross-domain similarity within U-CDORE does not by itself imply common ontology or formal equivalence. U-CDORE further provides a mechanism-aware theory-construction methodology. Observation → Pattern → Hypothesis → Deduction → Prediction → Experiment. For foundational theory construction, this is complemented by Ontology → Mechanism → Conceptual Architecture → Mathematical Model → Theory → Derivation → Prediction → Experiment . Explicit epistemic distinctions are maintained among observation, interpretation, hypothesis, inference, model-derived result, prediction, evidence, and speculation. Falsifiability, rival hypotheses, boundary testing, correspondence testing, and discriminating experiments are treated as essential controls against circular theory construction. Historically, U-CDORE developed through abstraction of the earlier CDORE sequence introduced in a physics-specific vacuum-emergence context in 2025. The present formulation separates the universal organizational architecture from that particular physical realization. The resulting research ecosystem includes U-CDORE Science, U-CDORE Learning and LMT, U-CDORE Physics, U-CDORE–CVP, and the developing SQV Microdynamics program. U-CDORE is not presented as a completed physical, biological, cognitive, economic, or social theory. Its scientific usefulness must ultimately be assessed by whether its applications improve mechanism identification, theory construction, consistency checking, prediction, experimental discrimination, and cross-domain conceptual translation.