The Aging Red Onion (2026)
Oil and wax on wooden panel
14 cm × 18 cm
Apeiron: A Philosophy of Creative Existence
Introduction
I have become increasingly interested in the relationship between creativity, human experience, and existence. In particular, I have questioned whether creativity is simply the result of accumulated experience, or whether something more fundamental allows us to create beyond what we have previously encountered.
This enquiry has led me to develop three interconnected philosophical ideas: Apeiron, Epotic Space, and the Davidson Hypothesis. Together, they offer a framework for considering how creative potential, biological existence, accumulated experience, and human activity relate to one another.
These ideas are not presented as established scientific theories. Rather, they are philosophical propositions intended to encourage further reflection on how we experience the world, understand existence, and participate in the creation of something new.
Before proceeding, I introduce a related concept that has emerged through reflection upon memory and place:
"There are certain environments that feel suspended in time, serving purely as a theatre for human chapters. I call these epotic spaces - fusing the episodic nature of our memories with the epic scale of the milestones that define us."
Apeiron: The Creative Principle
I use the term Apeiron to describe a fundamental creative principle of existence.
Apeiron is not simply imagination, memory, or a function of the human brain. Rather, I propose it as a creative potential that manifests through individual beings. Human beings may therefore be understood not as the sole originators of creativity, but as one means through which this creative principle finds expression.
Artistic activity provides a particularly clear example. When an artist creates something new, the result is not necessarily a reproduction of what has already been experienced. Something previously unrealised comes into existence in a new form. Previous experience undoubtedly influences this process, but does not necessarily determine its outcome.
This distinction is central to my understanding of Apeiron: creativity may be shaped by experience without being entirely confined by it.
Epotic Space: The Accumulation of Experience
Epotic Space is my term for the accumulated sensory and experiential influences that exist within an individual's being.
Throughout life we encounter the world through our senses. We see, hear, touch, and interact with our surroundings. These encounters are processed through biological systems and become integrated into subsequent perception and understanding.
I describe the accumulated consequences of these encounters as sensory residue.
This residue is not a complete record of everything we have experienced. Memory is selective and continually changing. Nevertheless, previous experiences influence how we recognise, interpret, and respond to the world. Epotic Space is therefore neither a physical location nor simply another word for memory. It describes the continually developing experiential environment within which new experiences are understood.
We never encounter the world entirely independently of what has come before. Every new experience enters an already existing field of associations, memories, and influences.
Space and the Question of Time
An important aspect of this philosophy concerns the relationship between space and time.
Ordinarily, time is understood through clocks, calendars, and the measurement of intervals between events. These systems are essential to everyday life and modern science. However, I question whether time should necessarily be understood as an independent entity or whether it may instead be considered a way of measuring relationships between changing conditions.
Space may be regarded as the environment within which events and interactions occur. Time then becomes a method of describing and measuring the intervals associated with those events.
Modern physics, particularly Einstein's theory of relativity, demonstrates that time possesses measurable physical properties and cannot simply be dismissed as a human convention. My proposal does not seek to dispute these scientific findings.
Instead, it raises a philosophical question: are we directly experiencing time itself, or are we experiencing change, movement, interaction, and the measurable relationships between occurrences?
This distinction remains open to further philosophical investigation.
The Davidson Hypothesis: The Interval Between Occurrence and Recognition
The Davidson Hypothesis explores the relationship between an occurrence and its subsequent perception, recognition, or registration.
I express this relationship as:
t0 → t0 + D
where:
- t0 represents an initial occurrence.
- D represents the interval associated with its subsequent registration or recognition.
Consider light travelling from an object to the eye. Light requires a finite period to travel. The biological systems involved in vision then process incoming information before it becomes available to conscious awareness.
Similarly, scientific instruments require physical processes to register information, while human beings require processes of interpretation to understand what they encounter. The occurrence of an event and our subsequent knowledge of it are therefore not necessarily simultaneous.
The Davidson Hypothesis invites us to consider the philosophical significance of this interval.
If we question whether time itself is an independent entity, we may also reconsider how we understand the interval between events and their registration. Rather than treating these intervals exclusively as measurements of time, we might investigate them as relationships involving change, interaction, and the development of information.
The hypothesis does not attempt to replace established scientific explanations. Rather, it proposes another way of examining the relationship between occurrence and knowledge.
Biological Existence and Creative Manifestation
An important distinction within this philosophy concerns the relationship between Apeiron and the biological being through which it manifests.
The human brain and body provide the means through which we perceive, remember, imagine, decide, and act. However, Apeiron is not intended as another name for these biological processes. Instead, I propose it as a distinct creative principle capable of expressing itself through biological existence.
Epotic Space represents the accumulated influence of experience, while biological existence provides the means through which we engage with the world. Apeiron represents creative potential, and individual agency influences how that potential becomes expressed.
Human beings are therefore not merely passive products of previous experiences. We possess the capacity to choose, to form intentions, and to direct our activities in novel ways.
Human Praxis: Creativity in Action
Human praxis is the process through which creative potential becomes realised within the world.
Praxis involves more than thinking or imagining. It includes action, decision-making, experimentation, and the transformation of possibility into actuality.
Artistic practice provides a particularly useful example. An artist may begin a work by observing an object or landscape, yet the completed painting may bear little resemblance to the original subject. During the process, colour, tone, composition, and visual relationships begin to exert their own influence upon the work.
The artist discovers possibilities that were not apparent at the outset.
Previous experiences influence these decisions, but they do not wholly determine them. Intention, judgement, experimentation, and discovery all contribute to the developing image.
Within this framework, Apeiron finds expression through creative action, while Epotic Space provides the accumulated influences that help shape it. The artist does not merely reproduce experience. The artist transforms it.
The Relationship Between Experience and Creation
The relationship between Apeiron and Epotic Space is continually evolving.
Experience influences creativity, yet creativity also produces new experience. When an artist completes a painting, the work itself becomes part of subsequent experience. It may alter how colour is perceived, how composition is approached, or how future subjects are understood.
The process is therefore recursive.
Experience influences creative activity. Creative activity produces something new. That creation becomes another experience, influencing future perception and action.
Human development is consequently more than the accumulation of memories. It is an ongoing relationship between experience, interpretation, agency, and creative expression.
Through this process we do not simply receive the world as it is presented to us. We actively contribute new forms and possibilities to it.
Mathematical Description and Philosophical Understanding
Mathematics provides powerful methods for describing relationships within the physical world.
Einstein's famous equation,
E = mc²
is an established expression of mass-energy equivalence.
My philosophy does not challenge the validity of such scientific relationships. Rather, it suggests that mathematical description and philosophical interpretation address different questions.
Mathematics describes relationships under defined conditions. Philosophy may investigate the meaning of those relationships and the conditions through which they become available to observation and understanding.
The Davidson Hypothesis belongs within this philosophical domain. It asks us to consider the relationship between an occurrence, its registration, and the subsequent development of knowledge.
The distinction is therefore not between science and philosophy as competing explanations, but between mathematical description and broader questions concerning existence and experience.
Conclusion: Existence as Creative Manifestation
The central proposition of this philosophy is that existence may be understood through an ongoing relationship between creative potential, biological being, accumulated experience, and human activity.
Apeiron represents a fundamental creative principle through which new possibilities become manifest. Epotic Space describes the accumulated sensory and experiential influences that shape how individuals perceive and understand the world. Biological existence provides the means through which we interact with our surroundings, while human praxis allows creative potential to find expression through action.
The Davidson Hypothesis introduces a further consideration: the relationship between an occurrence and its subsequent registration, perception, or recognition.
Together, these ideas suggest that human beings are not merely observers of an external reality, nor passive products of their accumulated experiences. Through creativity, intention, and action, we participate in the continuing development of the world around us.
Existence, in this account, is not simply something we observe and measure. It is also something through which creative potential continually becomes manifest.
