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Neither Philosophy nor Science: Ontological Agnosticism Explained Simply

Phronetic essay, Published ; August 2025

At first glance, ontological agnosticism may seem complex, but in reality, the idea is devastatingly simple. In this text, I will explain it in the most straightforward way possible.

Let us first say that ontological agnosticism is a strange creature in the intellectual landscape.

It is not a theory in the strict sense, because a theory always tries to say something positive about reality, or at least to model some aspect of it. Ontological agnosticism, by contrast, does not describe anything about the real: it simply notes the structural impossibility of grasping it as it is through our conceptual means.

And it does not fit into any category:

It is not philosophy: because philosophy, even in its most skeptical forms, always ends up erecting a system, a method, or a body of concepts… something you reject from the outset.
It is not science: because science, by definition, is an operational mapping of phenomena — whereas you stress that every map remains a map.
It is not religion nor metaphysics: because you do not replace the inaccessible truth with a dogma, a myth, or a revealed absolute.

It is rather a limit-position: a structural observation that applies before any undertaking of knowledge and invalidates its claim to speak the being. A bit like saying: “No matter what game we are playing, I announce before we even begin that the rule ‘the map = the territory’ is false.”

And that cannot be classified within existing disciplines, because it is a kind of meta-position — not a branch, but a ceiling that all disciplines hit without ever being able to break through.

Ontological Agnosticism – Condensed Definition

Ontological agnosticism is the observation that all human knowledge is mediated by concepts, and that no concept coincides with being as it is. It therefore produces no description of the real, but merely establishes the structural impossibility of grasping its ultimate nature. It is neither philosophy, nor science, nor religion: it is a limit-position, prior to any discipline, reminding us that every map remains a map and will never be the territory.

This obliges me to change some of the vocabulary I use and to create neologisms:

To avoid people associating my position with an existing current (and thus filing it away in some old dispute).
To immediately mark that this is a new field, escaping established categories.

This is why what I do is phronetics:

Not philosophy in the academic sense (love of wisdom),
But a lucid and embodied practice (phronesis in Greek = prudence, practical discernment).

And what I do is also infraphysics:

Metaphysics deals with what is “above” or “beyond” physics,
Infraphysics designates what lies beneath: the structural conditions before any physics or metaphysics.

Mini-Manifesto: Phronetics & Infraphysics

Phronetics
Définition : A discipline and practice aimed at navigating lucidly with our conceptual maps, knowing they are never the territory. Phronetics does not seek to describe being, but to cultivate a lucid discernment about our representations and their use.

Origin : From Ancient Greek phronesis (φρόνησις) — prudence, practical discernment — the term Aristotle used to describe wisdom applied to action. Here, the meaning is broadened: phronetics is not the pursuit of an absolute truth, but the art of living and thinking while assuming that all knowledge is conceptual and never coincident with being.

Usage :

As an alternative to the term philosophy, which implies a conceptual system.
To describe a field concerned as much with intellectual lucidity as with lived practice.
To form an autonomous disciplinary language around ontological agnosticism.

Infraphysics

Définition : A field of study that examines the structural conditions of all conceptual knowledge, upstream and beneath physics, metaphysics, and all other sciences. Infraphysics does not seek to explain the real, but to analyze the inherent limits of any discourse that claims to do so.

Origin : From Latin infra (“beneath”) and Greek physis (φύσις — nature, reality). If metaphysics is “beyond” the physical nature, infraphysics is beneath it: it focuses on the fundamental level where the possibility (or impossibility) of grasping reality as it is is decided.

Usage :

As an autonomous category, distinct from philosophy and science.
To describe works that do not depict the world, but analyze why no human description can coincide with being.
To create a new intellectual space, not to be confused with any traditional philosophical current.

Conclusion: Phronetics is the art of living and thinking within the limits revealed by infraphysics. Infraphysics establishes that we cannot reach being as it is; phronetics teaches us how to navigate this fact without dogma, without despair, and without illusion.

Postscript: This article is part of a larger project exploring the limits of conceptual thinking. See the home page.