About the Book
What does it mean for something not to be - and yet still exert force upon the world?
From the silence that shapes a symphony, to the zero that makes mathematics possible, to the imagined orders that bind societies together, absence proves itself indispensable. We live in a world where fictions move armies, where voids in logic determine truth, where evil devastates lives despite having no substance of its own. What, then, is this strange power of the non-existent?
This book names it Apophion: a structured absence, a paradoxical reality that is not being, and yet not sheer nothingness. Apophion is the hole that shapes the pattern, the shadow that gives contrast to light, the negation that nevertheless functions meaningfully within reality.
In this groundbreaking study, S. C. Sayles traces the drama of Apophion across the full spectrum of philosophy, theology, science, and culture:
In physics, black holes threaten to annihilate information, yet their very paradox demands laws that preserve it. Quantum fields suggest that absence is pregnant with possibility, structured by rules even in its apparent void.
In mathematics, the empty set and the concept of zero - nothing itself - become the indispensable foundation of all number, logic, and proof. Infinity, too, is not substance but boundary, an absence of limit that shapes the very possibility of calculation.
In biology, DNA reveals life written as code, but mutations - often deletions or absences - alter meaning and function as powerfully as presence. Life itself is shaped not only by what is, but by what is missing.
In language, silence, negation, and fiction reveal that words are not merely presences but also structured gaps. Hamlet and Middle-earth do not exist, yet they carry weight and reshape lives.
In culture, money, borders, and law all operate as fictions. They are Apophia - plural forms of structured absence - whose force lies not in material substance but in shared belief, imagination, and order.
In morality, evil emerges as the most destructive Apophion: a parasite upon the good, a negation that twists order without ever creating new being. Its power lies in distortion, not creation.
At the heart of this vision lies a profound claim: absence is never ultimate. Apophion is real but contingent, structured but dependent, parasitic but never sovereign. It is permitted, but not self-sustaining. Every fiction, every void, every negation testifies not to its own sufficiency but to the greater ground that gives it order.
Apophion: Ontology and the Paradox of Absence is not simply another study in metaphysics. It is a comprehensive rethinking of reality itself. By weaving philosophy, science, theology, mathematics, and cultural analysis into a single tapestry, it confronts the deepest paradox of existence - that non-being is at once impossible and yet everywhere apparent.
For philosophers, it offers a rigorous framework that unites classical ontology with modern information theory. For theologians, it provides a doctrine of creation that preserves the Creator-creature distinction while accounting for evil, fiction, and cultural meaning. For scientists, it shows why information and order must be understood as contingent, not ultimate. And for every thoughtful reader, it opens a new way of seeing the world - one in which even absence points beyond itself.
This is a bold and unsettling synthesis. It challenges materialist assumptions, critiques cultural idols, and dismantles false ontologies that absolutize the created order. Yet it also illuminates the path toward a unified account of being, one in which the paradox of absence finds resolution in a reality deeper and more enduring than Apophion itself.
