Reactive Substrate Theory (RST) : Synthesis: Substance vs. Structure
The Ontological Inversion: Substantialism vs. Functionalist Structure An analysis of the divergence between Jacob Barandes’ Physicalism and Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). 1. The Directionality of Derivation At the heart of the tension between Barandes’ physics and RST lies a fundamental disagreement on the direction of emergence . While both frameworks grapple with the relationship between the "Map" and the "Territory," they prioritize different ends of the spectrum: RST (Top-Down/Functionalist): In linguistic discourse analysis, RST posits that the "reality" of a text is an emergent property of its functional intent. Here, the Map (the relational structure) precedes the Territory (the semantic meaning). The text only becomes "real" or coherent through the abstract relationship—the Satellite-Nucleus link—rather than the raw data of the l...