In a recent text sent to colleagues, Siri Ming wrote: "I know I make a lot of announcements about the important-to-me things that I have coming up. Today though I am sharing about this fantastic and exciting opportunity I was just given to be "a speaker at our upcoming Conference World Conference on Astronomy, Neutrino Physics, Space Science"! Should I accept???? Could write off a trip to Amsterdam and get all kinds of "Exposure and Networking Opportunities"! (For those of my friends not in academic circles, we all get dozens of requests for weird predatory publishing and conferencing things. Mine are usually a bit closer to my actual field though...) "
Suggestion:
Relational Frame Theory (RFT) offers a functional contextual approach to understanding the symbolic and relational nature of human cognition. By applying RFT to the foundational assumptions of physical mathematics, we can analyze how specific relational frames structure the conceptual architecture of physics. This document categorizes the assumptions into ontological, epistemological, logical-mathematical, and methodological classes, and then maps the relevant RFT frame families—such as coordination, distinction, temporal, causal, hierarchical, and ordinal—onto each.
1. Ontological Assumptions
| Assumption | RFT Frames | Frame Families | Ordinal Dimension & Role |
| Objective reality exists | Coordination, Distinction | Coordination | N/A (binary distinction) — reality vs. illusion. |
| Causal structure exists | Causal, Temporal, Comparison | Causal, Temporal | Ordinal: Cause precedes effect — time-based ordering. |
| Space and time are ordered | Temporal, Spatial, Hierarchical | Temporal, Spatial | Ordinal: Events are ordered earlier–later, near–far, or lower–higher in space-time coordinates. |
2. Epistemological Assumptions
| Assumption | RFT Frames | Frame Families | Ordinal Dimension & Role |
| Empirical observability | Deictic, Conditional | Deictic, Conditional | Ordinal: More observable → more knowable — degree of access or measurement precision. |
| Consistency of natural laws | Temporal, Causal | Temporal, Causal | Ordinal: Law now = law then = law later — temporal sequencing is assumed stable across trials. |
| Mathematical describability | Analogical, Coordination | Analogical | Ordinal: Simple model < complex model in cognitive effort or generalizability. |
3. Logical-Mathematical Assumptions
| Assumption | RFT Frames | Frame Families | Ordinal Dimension & Role |
| Classical logic holds | Distinction, Negation | Distinction | Ordinal: Truth-values are ranked (e.g., false < true). |
| Real and complex numbers correspond to quantities | Coordination, Comparison | Coordination | Ordinal: Magnitude-based relations (e.g., 3 < 5). |
| Calculus is valid | Temporal, Comparison, Analogical | Temporal, Analogical | Ordinal: dx/dt before d²x/dt² — first-order precedes second-order. |
| Differential equations govern change | Causal, Conditional | Causal, Conditional | Ordinal: Temporal sequence in system evolution: initial < derived state. |
| Group theory and symmetry | Comparison, Hierarchical | Hierarchical | Ordinal: Symmetry group A ⊆ B — ordered inclusion. |
4. Methodological Assumptions
| Assumption | RFT Frames | Frame Families | Ordinal Dimension & Role |
| Falsifiability and testability | Conditional, Negation | Conditional | Ordinal: More falsifiable → better theory — model ranking. |
| Reductionism | Hierarchical, Comparison | Hierarchical | Ordinal: Component level < system level — ascending hierarchy. |
| Simplicity (Occam’s Razor) | Comparison, Analogical | Comparison | Ordinal: Simpler < more complex in parsimony. |
| Repeatability | Temporal, Causal | Temporal, Causal | Ordinal: First trial = Second = Nth — trial series consistency. |
Summary of Frame Families Used
| Frame Family | Examples of Usage in Physics Assumptions |
| Coordination | Reality exists; mapping math to phenomena |
| Distinction | True/false; observable/unobservable |
| Temporal | Ordering events and laws over time |
| Spatial | Geometric and physical location frames |
| Causal | Mechanistic laws, differential equations |
| Comparison | Simplicity, symmetry, magnitudes |
| Analogical | Math as a model of physical systems |
| Hierarchical | Part-whole and abstraction levels |
| Deictic | Observer-based frames, relativity |
| Conditional | Scientific logic: if-then structure |
| Negation | Logical structure: not-this = that |