Pragmatism

Time is emergent and practically oriented — it matters insofar as it structures human action and inquiry. The pragmatist treats temporal concepts as tools for organizing experience rather than metaphysical absolutes. Time is continuous, linear, and uni-directional because that is how it functions in human practice. Its extent is infinite in the sense that inquiry and practical engagement are open-ended processes with no final stopping point.

Space is emergent and finite in practical terms — the pragmatist treats spatial concepts as functional tools for navigating the environment rather than as descriptions of a mind-independent container. Space is flat, local, and three-dimensional because these properties serve the practical needs of human activity. What matters about space is how it shapes what we can do.

Matter is emergent and finite — it is what we interact with in practical experience. The pragmatist is less interested in matter's ultimate ontological status than in its functional role: matter is whatever resists and responds to human action. It is conserved and local because that is how matter behaves in the domain of practical consequence.

Energy is emergent and finite — it is understood through its practical effects and consequences rather than as an abstract substance. Conservation holds as a functional regularity that serves inquiry. Dispersibility is irreversible in practice, grounding the pragmatist's attention to real constraints on action.

Information is defined by its functional relations and practical consequences — a piece of information is whatever makes a difference to inquiry and action. Pragmatism treats information as relational and conserved in the sense that successful inquiry accumulates and builds on prior information.