propensity to persist

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

The propensity to persist is the author’s triadic synthesis of spontaneity, maintained continuity and statistical bias, developed through clinamen, conatus and Popper’s propensity. It explains how novelty can become durable organization under suitable conditions without a predetermined destination. The lenses remain distinct: variation does not itself retain, persistence does not inherently progress, and a statistical tendency is neither a hidden force nor guaranteed survival.

Explanation

The introductory triad gives each predecessor a separate role: spontaneous departure, striving or organization that endures, and objective tendency. The later synthesis makes bias arise through repeated variation and retention in an interactive context. It is the author’s comparative architecture, not proof that Lucretius, Spinoza and Popper proposed one identical metaphysics.

The relational qualification rejects persistence as an essence hidden in an isolated substance. A maintained regime resolves tensions without collapse and carries organization into further activity. AB similarly contrasts transient novelty with what is kept. The proposal consequently locates endurance in actual conditions and continuing processes rather than magical inertia or a cosmic preference.

The wider accumulation claim remains conditional: selective retention can produce a directional history without a final cause, while systems may stall or decline. Conative persistence alone has no inherent progress. The entry preserves that distinction and does not claim that every fluctuation creates novelty, every retained form improves or the universe as a whole climbs in complexity.

Scope and attribution

Retain the author’s triadic synthesis without merging antecedent philosophies or turning conditional history into teleology.

AB — The Actual Book

Novelty and keeping cooperate without a cosmic goal or guarantee of accumulation.

Occurrence locators: 55, 56, 58, 59; Notes: 239.

PB — The Possible Book

Retention permits accumulation while extinctions and simplification remain possible.

Occurrence locators: 95.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

The three attributed lenses combine in an expressly relational and conditional synthesis.

Occurrence locators: 268, 274, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 286, 287, 288, 292, 304.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.